Durian boom exposes ugly land tussles in Malaysia’s Pahang, home of Musang King cultivar

A clampdown on ‘illegal’ durian farmers in Pahang state shows the fraught land politics at play in the country’s increasingly lucrative Musang King industry

The arrest of 18 farmers this month for ‘trespassing’ on land they had cultivated for decades has thrust the issue back into the spotlight

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A worker shows a ‘Musang King’ durian at a shop in Kuala Lumpur last year. Photo: AFP

Norman Gohin Kuala Lumpur

Published: 9:30am, 12 Jul 2021Updated: 9:50am, 12 Jul 2021

It’s durian season again and across Asia, aficionados of the turpentine-scented delicacy have been hard at work sniffing out the best bargains.

From Hong Kong to Singapore, those with the most discerning palate – and cash to splash – often zoom in on the Mao Shan Wang or “Civet Cat King” cultivar, also called Musang King in Malaysia, where it is grown.

So prized is the Musang King’s custard-like texture and bittersweet taste that buyers in Hong Kong readily pay up to HK$400 (US$52) for a kilogram of the fruit, putting it almost in the same league as Maine lobsters in terms of price.

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Raub, deep in the central Malaysian state of Pahang, has become synonymous with Musang King thanks to the large number of older cultivar trees the area is home to.

But while there is great pride in Pahang about being home to the “king of kings” among durians, the frenzy of harvest season has also exposed the ugly local land tussles that have sprouted as a result of the increasingly lucrative Musang King industry.

Pahang, also the home state of Malaysia’s current king Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, last year made the headlines as durian farmers took a state-backed consortium to court over a proposal to address illegal farming.

The country’s second highest court weighed in on the matter in January, granting 204 small hold farmers a stay from eviction and giving them the de facto green light to continue cultivating pending a full hearing on their dispute with the Royal Pahang Durian Group and other associated agencies.