Rare durian fruit on sale in Indonesia for $1,000

Jakarta, Jan 29 (IANS) A rare variety of the stinky durian fruit is selling in Indonesia for almost a whopping $1,000, the media reported on Tuesday.The so-called "J-Queen" variety has gone on sale at a shopping centre in Tasikmalaya, West Java - where several are on display in clear boxes atop red satin and adorned with fake flowers - with an accompanying price tag of 14 million Indonesian rupiah ($993), reports the Guardian.News of the ostensibly rare durian has spread quickly in Indonesia, with social media users deriding its fantastical price tag, and locals flocking to the supermarket to snap a photograph alongside the spiky, pungent smelling fruit, considered a delicacy across much of South-East Asia.The brain behind the J-Queen variety is a 32-year-old Indonesian psychology major called Aka, who claims he created a new and rare version of durian by crossbreeding two superior varieties from different regions in Indonesia.The J-Queen tree, he says, bears fruit only once every three years and reportedly has a "peanut butter taste". Typically oblong in shape, fruit from the J-Queen durian is round and yellow gold.According to reports in the Indonesian media, only two J-Queen durians have been sold since the weekend.The durian's pungent smell is notoriously powerful - so much so that it is often banned from public transport and other enclosed spaces.
--IANS ksk/bg