Smells like hell, tastes like heaven

A KURANDA farmer capped a lifetime of growing what is considered to be the king of fruits in South East Asia, selling a whopping 6kg offering recently.

John Marshall has lived in FNQ his whole life and has been farming durian with his wife, Jackie, for the last 47 years.

They have 300 durian trees in their orchard and farm other SE Asian fruit such as the mangosteen and rambutan.

“The trees take about five years until they bear fruit and are very tall, growing to 30 metres,” Mr Marshall said.

“Durian is very difficult to grow. Thousands have been planted in North Queensland and most have died. People don’t know how to grow them.”

Wanting to learn, Mr Marshall has visited South-East Asia multiple times to learn the farming techniques.

“We went to research stations to find out some secrets. The last time we went was 2011,” he said.

Mr Marshall said that now there were at least 20 to 30 local growers farming durian with high demand forming in FNQ. “There’s a special market between Thailand and the US, they’ve developed a rich market. It’s a huge industry,” he said.

Mr Marshall said the fruit can go up to $US500 a piece in America, while the market in Cairns is yet to catch up.

On average durian grew to up to two to three kilograms in size, the farmer said.

However, he has recently sold a six kilogram durian in Cairns for $108. “You can’t sell a fruit like that in Cairns at (the US) price,” Mr Marshall said.

He is still hopeful, however, that the demand and prices will rise in the coming years.

The massive six kilogram durian is of the Montong variety, which Mr Marshall said was the best of all durians.

“The flavour is impossible to describe,” he said.

Spending three quarters of his life growing these exotic fruits, Mr Marshall still continues to do a little farming every day and passes his passion onto his sons.

While people turn up their noses at the fruit, Mr Marshall said the smell didn’t bother him anymore and only took a week to get used to.

“It’s the fruit that smells like hell but tastes like heaven,” he said.

John Marshall with a 6kg durian on his farm at Barron Falls Estate in Kuranda, where he has farmed durian for 47 years. The fruit normally doesn't exceed 2-3kg.