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  Durians which have had their thorns removed no longer look like durians. Instead, they resemble cantaloupes.

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  Zheng Yousong (name transliterated): Every day, I have to remove the thorns from about 300 durians.

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  A durian vendor cuts away the thorns on a durian with a knife.

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KUALA LUMPUR: When it comes to exporting durians, the pungent smell of the "king of fruits" had always been a thorny issue. In the past, durians could only be shipped abroad by sea because its smell (which some find offensive) caused airlines to ban it from their flights.

But famous durian cultivars such as "貓山王" (mao shan wang - which literally means Cat Hill King), "竹腳" (zhu jiao - which means bamboo foot), "D24" and "101" have now successfully shed these air transport restrictions - along with all their thorns - and are now taking to the skies on their way to Australia.

A "clever individual" who refuses to divulge his identity came up with the idea of cutting away the thorns on durians and then vacuum packing them to seal away the smell, eliminating the cause of the air transport restrictions.

He was then able to ship the shorn fruit to Australia by air. The gambit paid off when he successfully created a market for the fruit Down Under, with the "Cat Hill King" cultivar regarded as the best by Australians.

Thornless durians resemble cantaloupes

The clever individual purchased his durians from local durian vendors with the conditions that the fruit had to be from famous cultivars and their thorns must all be removed. If even a single thorn remained on a durian, he would reject it.

As a result, every day vendors would wield their knives to cut away the thorns on their durians. When shorn of its prickly coating, the "king of fruits" loses most of its regal aura, resembling a cantaloupe more than a durian. However, its pungent aroma remains as strong as ever, though a smell like that of leaves has been added to the bouquet.

At the moment, Malaysian durians are the only durians in the whole world that are allowed to be imported into Australia, and demand is growing day by day.

Zheng Yousong (name transliterated), a 47-year-old durian vendor in Cheras, told Guang Ming Daily that he started supplying durians to the "thornless durian" exporter half a month ago. His durian plantation in Raub, Pahang supplies about 300 thornless durians every day.

"The exporter said that durians with thorns can't be transported by plane and asked me to cut away the thorns and even the stem as well."

After they've had their thorns removed, the weight of the durians (which on average ranges from 1.5kg to 2.5kg per durian), drops to around 1.2kg to 2.2kg. This means there is a reduction in weight of around 15% or 200g.

He said that exporter had a factory in Taman Tamin Jaya where the "thornless durians" were packaged using the plastic vacuum pack method beofre they were shipped by air to Australia.

"Even though Malaysian durians have a very strong aroma, the vacuum packing method will remove all of the air within the package, sealing the aroma inside. This way, the durians can be transported by air."

From what we understand, thornless durians do not need to be refrigerated. The entire process from packaging the durians to loading them onto the plane takes only six hours.

Cutting away thorns at the market every day

Every day, Zheng and five of his workers sharpen their knives at the bustling market before starting work on the batch of durians for the day. The six of them can remove the thorns on 300 durians in just three hours, and their daily activity never fails to draw curious looks and questions from passersby.

Zheng says he uses a knife made for opening durians to cut away the thorns. However,the edge of the knife has to be sharp to ensure that all the thorns are completely removed. It usually takes only several minutes to cut away all the thorns on a durian.

"Everyday, I have to explain to passersby the reason for removing the thorns on the durians. Some even ask me if I would sell them. Of course not. They have all been ordered by someone. Generally, Malaysians would not be able to accept a bald durian. They want to buy durians that have thorns, which they consider as proper durians."

So how can Australians accept these durians which don't look like durians? Perhaps after they open the packaging and get a whiff of the wonderful aroma wafting out from inside, they forget all about appearances and focus only on the mouth-watering fruit within.

Airtight packaging seals in the aroma

As mentioned earlier, in the past the unique smell of durians meant that the fruit could only be exported out of the country by sea. However, a successful experiment carried out by MAS in August 2004 provided a breakthrough when they successfully shipped 30kg of durians to Hong Kong, opening the way for aerial shipping of durians.

The flesh of these durians were removed from their thorny rinds and placed inside airtight, waterproof and heat-resistant foam packaging before being stored at a temperature of -18 degrees celsius.

Under such conditions, the durians did not give off any odor, and they were still fresh after a flight of 12 hours.

The "thornless durian" vacuum packing method has eliminated the need for such troublesome procedures. Instead of having to remove the flesh from the rinds and place them into foam packaging, durians can now be shipped whole (though without their thorns).

Malaysian flowers and fruits making inroads into the Australian market

Due to the extremely strict import and cleanliness standards imposed by Australia, it is currently the hardest market for agricultural products to penetrate. However, As a result of our government's efforts, since June 2004 Malaysia's flowers and fruits (including durians) have all managed to comply with Australian quarantine standards and permission was given allowing their export to Australia.

According to what we know, Malaysian durians aren't enjoyed only by the Malaysian students and immigrants in Australia. Many Australians love the taste of the "king of fruits" as well.

Unique characteristics of vacuum packed thornless durians