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The True Cost Of Durian鈥檚 Explosive Growth | True Cost | Business Insider - YouTube
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[0]
durian is the king of fruits in asia and
[2]
demand is off the charts
[5]
the value of durian imports in china is
[8]
now greater than cherries and bananas
[10]
combined
[11]
farmers in malaysia are cashing in on
[13]
the craze and even the royal family
[15]
wants in
[17]
but this growing business has come at a
[19]
cost
[20]
now small farmers are stuck in a
[22]
ruthless land battle with a big
[24]
corporation and the local government
[26]
so why is this smelly fruit causing so
[28]
much conflict we went to malaysia to
[31]
investigate the true cost of one of
[33]
asia's most popular fruits
[38]
a state government in malaysia cut 15
[41]
000 durian trees
[43]
this is public land and these farms are
[46]
not technically legal
[47]
but farmers cultivated these trees for
[49]
generations without problem
[51]
and they're the ones who popularized
[53]
this special variety of durian musang
[56]
king it sold for an average 32 dollars
[58]
and 50 cents a pound in malaysia during
[61]
the 2021 season that's more than double
[64]
this season's average price for live
[65]
maine lobster
[69]
farmers like tamway kiyat say the
[70]
destruction of durian farms is a scare
[72]
tactic to either push them off the land
[74]
or sign an unfair contract
[82]
tan's father started growing durian here
[84]
in the early 2000s tan took over the
[86]
farm a decade ago but in july he lost
[89]
everything
[95]
[Music]
[98]
this is the first time tan has seen his
[100]
durian trees since they were destroyed
[110]
one tick tock video that went viral in
[112]
malaysia appears to show state
[114]
authorities cutting down durian trees
[122]
[Music]
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this is what farmers saw when they
[125]
returned to their land
[136]
tan now works at a durian collection
[137]
stall in raub a township of a hundred
[140]
thousand people known as the durian
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capital of malaysia
[144]
the fruits undergo a careful quality
[146]
check here before it's picked up by
[148]
local and international buyers
[160]
says it's easy for him to tell good
[162]
fruit from bad fruit since he's worked
[164]
with durian most of his life
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that's critical because buyers selling
[168]
durian to countries like china expect
[170]
the fruit to be flawless
[172]
the best durians come from trees that
[174]
are more than a decade old
[188]
workers look through up to 400 baskets
[190]
of durian a day during the peak seasons
[192]
which run from july to september and
[194]
december to march
[205]
the majority of durians exported out of
[207]
this region end up in singapore
[211]
kelvin tan runs the operation here at 99
[214]
old trees he started this durian
[216]
business in 2017.
[218]
this storefront is just a small part of
[220]
calvin's operation he also sells
[222]
wholesale frozen durian to buyers in
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china calvin says business has never
[227]
been better traditionally every durian
[229]
season a lot of singaporeans will travel
[231]
up to malaysia to eat durians there
[233]
because it's cheaper there right because
[234]
of this pandemic most of these they have
[236]
no choice but to just eat in singapore
[238]
that is why it has actually resulted in
[239]
a higher sales for us
[241]
than sells nearly a dozen varieties of
[243]
durian during peak harvest season he's
[246]
meticulous about the quality of the
[247]
fruit in a good moosan king what we look
[249]
out for is number one the color
[251]
fragrance like when the moment you open
[253]
the durian there should be a whiff of
[254]
fake fragrance and of course uh the
[256]
creaminess
[257]
so check out the creaminess
[260]
okay so this example durian that cannot
[262]
pass our quality control these are all
[265]
semi-ripe flesh the taste is pretty
[267]
awful so for this kind of sub standard
[269]
durian we will have to reject them
[271]
calvin's team sells up to 4 000 pounds
[274]
of durian a day up from nearly 900 in
[277]
2018. he says increasing chinese demand
[280]
and loosening regulations fundamentally
[282]
changed the durian business
[284]
china imported a record 2.3 billion
[287]
dollars worth of durian in 2020 a number
[290]
that has quadrupled since 2017.
[293]
farmers in raub struggle to keep up with
[295]
demand
[297]
chang mun has farmed durian for more
[299]
than a decade
[301]
in july the state government tore down
[303]
two-thirds of his trees
[313]
today he's picking up the last durians
[315]
of the season
[324]
the trees chang lost were the ones his
[327]
father planted more than 20 years ago
[341]
now he has 240 trees left on seven acres
[344]
of licensed land it's barely enough to
[347]
support his wife parents and two
[349]
children
[360]
the conflict began in 2020 that's when
[363]
the government leased more than 5
[364]
thousand acres of land in rob to a
[366]
private company
[368]
royal pahang durian group
[370]
its biggest shareholder the malaysian
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royal family
[374]
the royal family the state government
[377]
and the corporation are working together
[379]
and they've given farmers just two
[381]
options get off the land or sign a
[383]
contract that caps profits forces them
[386]
to work and gives them less money for
[388]
small harvests
[390]
the 30 years period of the contract you
[392]
need to work inside your lane abandon
[395]
your land you may be penalized
[398]
this is chao you hey he's a state
[400]
assemblyman for raobs cha's district the
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royal palm during legalization scheme is
[404]
an unequal and unfair
[407]
contract or scheme to the farmers that
[410]
treated the farmers as a modern slave
[414]
chao has been advocating for durian
[416]
farmers for the past year
[418]
this is the action by the state
[419]
government to create the fear among the
[421]
farmers and force them to sign the
[424]
unequal contract with the royal palm
[426]
duran
[427]
farmers refused to sign the contract and
[429]
filed a lawsuit instead they also
[432]
organized to form the save musang king
[434]
alliance
[436]
[Applause]
[437]
[Music]
[455]
the state government told local
[457]
journalists that the trees that cut down
[459]
were in a national forest preserve
[461]
farmers argue that the land was
[462]
protected by a january court decision
[465]
the state that governs raub declined to
[467]
comment to insider as did royal baham
[470]
durian group citing an ongoing lawsuit
[472]
with farmers
[473]
you have a far
[475]
bomb
[476]
for
[485]
malaysia's durian business continues to
[488]
expand
[489]
royal baham durian group plans to build
[491]
the largest durian processing facility
[493]
in malaysia
[495]
and by 2030 the country's durian exports
[498]
are expected to increase by 50 percent
[501]
but will small farmers see any of the
[503]
profits
[504]
or will the durian craze cost them
[506]
everything
[516]
[Music]
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