PARLIAMENT | Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek has revealed that the popularity of durians from Malaysia can rival that of the iPhone X.

He said this when sharing his experience of travelling to China to promote the fruit.

"In China, people say only two things can make the Chinese queue up. The first was when the US (firm Apple) came out with the new iPhone – iPhone X.

“Then the people queued up for durian from Malaysia,” Shabery added in the Dewan Rakyat this morning.

The minister also explained that the hike in durian prices in Peninsula Malaysia this season is due to a shortfall in production and not because the fruits are being exported to China.

He disclosed that production fell to as low as 20 percent compared to the regular yield.

"We realised there was an extraordinary increase in the price, especially for the 'Musang King' (variant) recently.

"But the actual cause of the price hike was a drastic drop in production to only 20 to 30 percent as compared with normal production," Shabery (photo) said during the question-and-answer session.

The minister was responding to Liang Teck Meng (BN-Simpang Renggam) who pointed out that Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) had blamed the BN government for the hike in prices.

This was after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak took credit for exporting the durian to China.

Elaborating further, Shabery urged Malaysians not to view high price of a particular product negatively.

"A high price is not a problem, but oversupply leading to 'no value' is a problem," he said.

"We should be proud of (our ability to export the durian), like the US and Europe, which are proud of their exports of apple, grape and orange.

"We do not have other fruits that we can export on a large scale because of its value and taste," he said.

"The best time to plant durian was five years ago. Now is the second best time to plant the durian again because we estimate that in two to three years down the road, more Chinese will acquire the taste for the Malaysian durian, especially the Musang King, and this will generate a new wealth for Malaysians," he added.

Shabery also noted that the price for Musang King dropped to RM45 per kg this month, the beginning of durian peak season.

Currently, China is only allowed the import of frozen durian fruits, without the thorny durian as a whole.