Bordeaux’s tourists flock to its vineyards to taste flights of the region’s renowned red wines.
On the other side of the world, entrepreneur Adrian Choy hopes that visitors to Malaysia will soon view sampling the world’s most divisive fruit as a similar must-do cultural experience.
At DurianBB Park in Kuala Lumpur, people taste platters of varieties of the spiky, football-sized fruit – from the saccharine sweet Musang King to the custardy Black Thorn – grown at the company’s farms. They wear plastic gloves to protect their hands from the odor, which has been likened to “stale vomit.” Meanwhile, fans have compared its flavor to caramel and even cheesecake.
“That distinct taste, you really love it or hate it,” Choy, whose official title is the “Chief Dreamer” of DurianBB, told CNN correspondent Kristie Lu Stout in March.
The tropical fruit, native to Southeast Asia, has long been popular in China, the world’s largest consumer of the fruit.
In recent years, the fruit gained popularity as a gift for newly engaged couples and their families. A boom, led by Chinese consumers, started as early as 2017, according to a report published by HSBC in 2023. Between 2022 and 2023, durian exports from Southeast Asian nations grew 400% year-on-year.
The growth trajectory for the fresh fruit has slowed. “I believe that it is a fad that is fading away,” Aris Dacanay, ASEAN economist at HSBC, who authored the report, tells CNN.
But there’s still much durian-related economic opportunity. “It’s shifting from a game of who can produce more and ship fruits to China to who can innovate,” he says. Instead, “who can do something different with the fruit?”
That’s just what companies like DurianBB are trying to do. “Fruit is very hard to differentiate,” says Choy. “We want to be different.”
‘Delivering happiness with durian’
In 2024, China imported 15.6 billion kilograms (34.4 billion pounds) of durian, worth almost $7 billion, according to the South China Morning Post.
Countries across Southeast Asia are getting in on the trade. Until recently, Thailand had a monopoly over exports to China. Vietnam started shipping the fruit to China in 2022, and the Philippines sent its first batch of fresh durian in 2023.
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<div class=”byline__authors byline__authors–hide-all-images”>By <div class=”byline__author”><span class=”byline__name”>Kriti Gandhi</span></div></div>
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<div class=”timestamp__published”>PUBLISHED Aug 20, 2025, 11:12 PM ET</div>
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Last year, Malaysia got the green light to transport fresh durians to China, and exporters sent more than 400 metric tons to the country between August and the end of the year.
That includes DurianBB, which shipped about 10,000 durians to China. But dealing in fresh fruit presents challenges. Malaysian durian ripens on the tree, so the company has just days to get its goods to consumers, says Choy. Rainy weather this year means DurianBB’s farms aren’t producing as much fruit as normal. And Choy expects prices for the raw fruit to decline as competition increases.
Instead, the company is leaning into other durian-related offerings, like tourist experiences and souvenirs. The company has put on a durian-themed musical for kids, and created durian intellectual property, in the form of durian characters, which sell at vendors like Toys “R” US, and at its properties.
In addition to DurianBB Park, the company runs DurianBB World in Kuala Lumpur, which is home to a dessert shop and what Choy calls a “mini theme park” with interactive games and a daily durian masterclass. It covers everything from the fruit’s history to its growth cycle.
Then there’s DurianBB Academy, a 30-acre farm about 25 minutes from the city center, where visitors can play durian-themed carnival games, watch a durian science magic class, or take the company’s durian class. DurianBB says the academy is in its soft-launch phase now and will officially open in the late fall.
With his wide-ranging offering, Choy says that he wants the company to “deliver happiness with durian.”
A wave of durian innovation
In 2019, a durian-focused blog deemed DurianBB “one of the first, maybe the first, recognizable durian chains in the world.”
But it isn’t the only company getting creative to cash in on durian interest. Several farms in Malaysia offer visits and tastings. Dury Dury in Kuala Lumpur advertises its durian buffet as “perfect for company events” and Bao Sheng Durian Farm in Penang offers a two-hour unlimited tasting sessions and accommodation.
Choy believes DurianBB is different than other farms, because visits to its locations are “a total experience.”
Its approach appears to be gaining traction. The company’s annual revenue was about $10 million in 2024, according to Choy, led by its souvenirs sector.
It doesn’t hurt that Malaysia is actively working to draw Chinese travelers. The Southeast Asian nation received 1.8 million Chinese tourists in the first five months of the year, following the introduction of a visa waiver program.
Choy estimates that they get 400,000 to 500,000 visitors per year – about 50% from China – and he expects that to increase to 700,000 to 800,000 per year once DurianBB Academy is fully open.
“Malaysian durian is very new to [Chinese consumers],” says Choy. “We see a huge opportunity there.”
Across Asia, others are offering distinct experiences and products. One Bangkok restaurant is serving durian omakase and a high-end Hong Kong hotel is offering durian-themed afternoon tea sets, working the ingredient into panna cotta and fried rice. IKEA Hong Kong sells durian ice cream and croissants.
Yum China, which runs Pizza Hut in China, says it sold 30 million durian pizzas between January and November 2024, making it the top selling pie. Elsewhere on the mainland, the fruit has made its way into mochi, milk tea, and even hotpot.
Still, DurianBB appears to be pulling ahead in innovation. In the near-term, Choy says he’s in the planning stages of opening a potential “DurianBB Universe” in Singapore – another destination popular with Chinese tourists. That might host a theme park, courses, and durian tasting. “We want to open the biggest durian integrated experience in the world,” he says.
“We are thinking of movies, TV episodes,” he adds. “We are always coming up with new ideas.”
Ushar Daniele contributed to this report.