A newer durian, black thorn D-200, is now worth much more than musang king on the Malaysian retail market. Black thorn is a Penang variety that is now being grown for export as well.
Since Malaysians let the durians fall instead of cutting the stem their durians have been too ripe to freeze conventionally for export. Now with liquid nitrogen freezing they are entering the export market with quality that should surpass the ethylene ripened Thai durians.
Peter
I literally can not eat ethylene ripened Durians, they give me headaches, if you buy a Mongthong from Tops you will get that.
For Durian, I only go to the wholesale market near my house, where vendors buy by truckload, I have a vendor which allows me to shop her wholesale lots (which is technically not allowed) for the largest Chanee. These are undesirable to Thai people because larger than normal Durians contain an abundance of seed/flesh/skin etc.. so you are paying for waste. However I find that these Durians are predictably tree ripened longer, they were the first to flower, and signal the overabundance of the crop, these are the fruits that rot or are eaten by the owners, only a few make it into the truck lots. ** Because they are hard to sell, even wholesale buyers are paying for 'waste.'
Thailand also has an overabundance of new varieties premiering at festivals yearly for high pricing, always the 'next best thing.' I'll stick to my Chanee, I tend to disagree with the Durian aficionado's taste buds, proper Chanee is as good as it gets for me. I would imagine if any of these new Durians entered into the wholesale market, pricing would stabilize, pricing now is based on demand, not quality imo, they are not better than Chanee, just different.
Maybe rumors, but besides ethylene painted stems, I have heard of actual ethanol injected into fruits, but maybe hyperbole.
