Why £15 durians are being sold at half price - or given away for free

Image source, Kelly Ng/ BBC Image caption, Durian prices have plunged because of oversupply By Koh Ewe  and  Kelly Ng , Reporting from Singapore Published 1 hour ago For days now, a long line has been snaking around the two blocks leading up to the Durian Ninja fruit stall in Tampines, a busy township in the east of Singapore. They are waiting patiently for the free fruit the seller has been giving away daily since mid-June: two durians per customer, about 600kg a day. This generosity is being fuelled by an oversupply of durian across the border in Malaysia, which typically produces about 550,000 tonnes a year. But an unusually abundant 2026 has crashed the price of the prickly, pungent fruit beloved in large parts of Asia. Sixty-nine year-old Cherng, who is in the line in Singapore, tells the BBC that he has been having durian "almost every day". For him and his family, this is a rare chance to devour durians "of good quality, and sometimes at nearly half the price of previous seasons". Customers in Malaysia and neighbouring Singapore are swarming fruit stalls where durians are being sold at huge discounts or, if they are lucky, given away for free. But while durian lovers feast, Malaysian farmers are chagrined. They say this glut, or what many have dubbed a "durian tsunami", is the result of a decade-long boom, during which Malaysians flocked to durian farming to cash in on growing Chinese demand. Image source, Kelly Ng/ BBC Image caption, Customers line up for free fruit at Durian Ninja in Singapore "Back then, a lot of people cut down their rubber trees or oil palms to grow durians. A lot of the trees [planted then] are now starting to bear fruit," says Lu Yuee Thing, the owner of several durian farms near the Malaysian town of Raub. Over the last decade, Malaysia's durian exports, to China in particular, have soared, driven mainly by prized varieties like the Musang King - a buttery, bittersweet fruit largely grown in Raub that the Chinese have dubbed the "Hermès of durians". As Musang King gained popularity, "a lot of people got into Musang King [farming]", says Lee Wah Chong, who runs a luxury resort and durian farm in Malacca. The trees in the newer farms have reached maturity around the same time, resulting in a glut that has depressed prices across the Malaysian durian market and impacted exports. Last December, Lu sold his Musang King durians to retailers at an average of 13.50 ringgit ($3.30). This month, Lu says he can only sell them for half the price. Han says he has slashed prices for his Musang Kings by nearly a third, offering them to customers for 50 ringgit per kilogram. "The market pressure is too high for me," he says, adding that he is now trying to make up for lost profits with other fruit he grows, such as bananas. Some farmers also say they are competing against lower quality yields. Lee says that "although young trees are producing durian, the quality is not consistent". This sentiment is shared by Han Sing Keng, a