Hi Sam,
The tree in the photo is a grafted Gradum/D-99. The original was brought to CR by Bill Whitman and I made an approach graft off that tree more than 20 years ago. I have another of the same in production as well as a 30 year old seedling that took 12 years to come into production. Between the 3 trees we have perhaps 350 fruits.
In our area grafted durian can begin producing after 5-6 years, seedlings 8-12.
Initially demand was slow but it has picked up to the point that there is easily more demand than production and I see the demand pressure increasing faster than production for some time.
The buyers fall into three groups. There are Chinese who are aware of durian, obsessed by it, in Costa Rica. The expat community has many serious durian consumers. The durian consumer will drive 6-8 hours or more to buy good, fresh durian. Latin Costa Rican’s who have somehow become aware of durian are also buyers.
We continue to plant and have a pipeline of new production in the works.
Peter