Durian ice cream, a favorite of many people in Singapore, South Korea, Australia or Japan has its basic ingredient in fact exported from North Sumatra.
North Sumatra Crop and Horticulture Agency program subdivision head Yusfahri confirmed that at least 10 countries -Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, and Brazil -routinely imported durians from the province in the last seven years.
Malaysia imports the biggest volume of durians, followed by Japan, Vietnam, Brazil and Thailand. The data from 2017 show that Malaysia imported 901.21 kilograms of durians, Japan imported 480.17 kg, Vietnam 371.90 kg, Brazil 284.20 kg and Thailand 240.60 kg.
Yusfahri said the exported durians were already processed because most of them would be manufactured into ice cream. He said many more Asian countries as well as those in South America had expressed their interest in importing durians from North Sumatra, yet as the supply was limited the province so far could only meet the demand from these 10 countries.
