Control durian prices, save buyers from being cheated -PPMM

Every time durian is in season, one will always hear complaints by buyers, lamenting how they are being cheated into paying exorbitant price for the 'King of Fruits', with a quality that leaves much to be desired.

It is more frustrating when only upon reaching home do they realise the fruits that they have just purchased are not yet ripe, rotten, tasteless and with white, undeveloped flesh and so on.

Malay Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPMM) president Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Che Hassan Che Johan said it was high time for the government to introduce the ceiling price for durian clones according to their grades.

"For instance, the Musang King durian, it has grade A, B and C. The ceiling price should be set based on the grades and action should be taken against traders selling it higher than the price set," he told Bernama recently.

He said this when asked to comment on a media report about some durian traders who set the price of the fruit according to the car type that their customers arrived in.

Che Hassan said the excuse given by some quarters that the durian price could not be controlled as the fruit is seasonal is not reasonable anymore.

He advised buyers to bring containers and asked sellers to open the fruits on-site so that they would not be duped into buying inedible fruits.

--BERNAMA