VietNamNet Bridge – Some use knife hilts to beat durians and assess durian quality through the sound of the beat. Some others thrust knives into durian covers then smell the blades to see whether the fruits is ripe or not and evaluate the quality for sales.

There are many tents collecting and selling durians along the National Highway 14, passing Dak Mil district in Dak Nong province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Each tent has a person who is in charge of testing, classifying and consulting customers.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Duc, 46, from Duc Son hamlet, Duc Manh commune, Dak Mil district, shared his experience in assessing durian quality after eight years of testing durian by beating knife hilts on the fruit.

According to Duc, when one surveys durian quality by this method, he/she must focus on listening to the sound. The plopping sound means the fruits are ripe already. If the sound is a little “softer”, the fruits have flat seeds, thus they are of high quality. The fruits with hollow sound are still young.

Duc showed off his skill in surveying durians by cutting two durians in half, which he had said that one was young and one had flat seeds. Actually, his judgment was accurate.

“The most important thing is the client’s satisfaction,” Duc added. “I learned this testing method from professional durian testers in Long Thanh (Dong Nai province), who worked for me nearly ten years ago. Now I can classify durians with the accuracy of 95 percent”.

Duc said thrusting knives into durian covers for quality testing is not good because the marks may get sour. If a durian has several marks, it cannot be maintained for a long time.

Duc said he sells nearly 700 kilo of durians to HCM City and Gia Lai province a day.

Mrs. Truong Thi Kim Chau, 45, also from Duc Son hamlet, said that she always tests durians by stabbing a knife into durians and seeing and smelling the blade to assess durian quality.

Chau said that if the smell on the blade is sweet and scented, the fruits are ripe and delicious. If there is a lot of juice on the blade, the fruits are immature. If nothing is on the blade, the fruits are green. Chau has applied this method for seven years. This is also the most popular testing method.

Durian testers both test durian quality and classify fruits for sales so their skill is decisive for the prestige of durian selling points.

Durians are classified into two kinds. The top quality fruits are sold to shops and supermarkets. The secondary quality fruits are sold for ice cream producers.

“Ripe durians that fall from the trees are scented and have yellow flesh. Those that are picked up from trees and forced to ripen will not be scented and the flesh is white. It is most difficult to find out which fruits have flat seeds,” Phuong said.

“Any method you use to test durian quality, clients have the right to return the fruits if they are of low quality. So testing and classification are the decisive factor in trading durians,” Duc said.

PV