Gone in 60 minutes: Bishan durian stall sells 200kg of Mao Shan Wang durians at $8 to $12

The long queues are back again, for durians that is.

To kick off the annual season for the king of fruits, one durian stallholder held a promotion in Bishan on Thursday (June 20), offering premium Mao Shan Wang or Musang King varieties for as low as $8 per kilogram.

Within an hour, around 200kg of the fruit was snapped up, Shin Min Daily News reported on Friday (June 21).

The durian season usually occurs between June and September, where the fruit is abundant and prices are lower.

This is also typically the time when sellers would be hawking the fruit at incredible prices in a bid to attract customers.

Among them this year is durian stall Wangshengli95, located at Block 513 Bishan Street 13. It held a promotion that started on Wednesday, offering its B-grade and A-grade Mao Shan Wang varietals at $8 and $12 per kilogram respectively.

According to a Straits Times report in May, the best grade of Malaysia's Musang King was sold for RM20 ($5.72) to RM30 per kilogram in 2023. This was lower than the previous high of RM50 to RM70 per kilogram.

Wangshengli95's promotional activities on Thursday was scheduled to start at 6.30pm, but there were already over 20 customers waiting in line 15 minutes before, reported Shin Min.

"Today is already the second day of the promotion. The durians were sold out yesterday and customers came 30 minutes ahead of time today. Some of them are regulars but others came because they saw my Facebook post," said the stall owner, Chen Ruixiang.

The 38-year-old believes his prices for the grade of durians are the lowest in Singapore. 

He said that he would continue to prepare 200kg of durians for customers in the days ahead, adding that as long as the bumper crop holds up, he hopes to be able to continue the promotional activities till July.

According to The Straits Times report, this year's harvest from Malaysia is expected to be a bountiful one, due to the hot weather that the country experienced late last year.

Other durian sales

Shin Min also reported that some Sheng Siong outlets have started selling durians such as Mao Shan Wang and other varieties, from $13.80 a durian at its branch at 52 Chin Swee Road, and at $9.90 each at Block 209 Bedok Central.

At FairPrice, its durian fair saw Malaysian kampung durians going at $1.95 each on June 14. The sale of durians at the same price continues this weekend (June 21 to 23) at Kang Kar mall.

Giant is also holding its Durian Buffet Party this weekend (June 22 and 23) at its hypermarket in Tampines, with a standard one-hour package for unlimited durians priced at $48 per person.

ALSO READ: Customers snap up $1.95 durians at Bedok FairPrice outlet within 1 hour

candicecai@asiaone.com