Pure Durian Nuggets: To sell or not to sell

During these last durian season, I bought extra durians as I wanted to make durian suggest.  I haddone this before and I loved it.  So this season, I bought durians that were not exposed to herbicides and chemical fertilisers of the original variety - non-GMO and also without hormones application.  The price ranged from rm 8-10 per kg at the orchard and each fruit was more than one kg.

The nuggets are made from pure fruit with no additives or preservatives.  I do not use fruits that are no longer nice to consume fresh but select the best ones.  The seeds are removed and only the flesh is used.
No flour of any type or other fillers were added.  No sugar was added and since it is already naturally sweet, the dehydration process will concentrate the sugars.  Adding sugar would not only make it extremely sweet but also detract from the health quality.

As a general rule, upon dehydration, each fruit will produce about 6-8 durian nuggets.  Basically, if you eat 8 nuggets, you have eaten a whole fruit.  Since it is really good and being a durian lover, I can easily eat them in one sitting - something which can be more challenging if I was eating the fresh fruit.  What I find interesting is the dehydration process breaks down the fibrous strand resulting in a smooth non-chewy cake-like texture.  You can either consume the nuggets on its own or use it to create or flavour other dishes like sweet coconut gravy that you use as a dip such as with bread, sweet desserts such as pancakes and puddings, and to make ice cream.

Some have asked if I am selling them.  Therein lies the dilemma.  The cost of producing  the 8 nuggets is around rm 12 - including the fruit cost (average price rm 9), people cost, dehydration cost and simple packaging. That doesn't include selling costs. So in total to have a few cents of profit, the selling price is RM 15.  The question is: are people willing to buy it for RM 15.  If I wanted to use fancy packaging, it will be at least rm 18.

I began a comparison of high-end snacks without additive, fillers and preservatives.  It was hard to find any for comparison.  To compare to other durian products, there was no pure durian products was not possible as I couldn't find any.  There were durian candies which were loaded with other ingredients, durian dodol which had more flour and sugar and other ingredients than durian, durian ice cream where durian was used as a flavouring and tempoyak which used durian that was no longer good to consume fresh.

Conclusion: the durian nuggets will be sold in packs of 9 nuggets at a price of rm 15.  If you are interested to purchase, you can whatsApp me at 0172821219.  Up to 9 packs per order can be sent via poslaju for additional rm 7.50 postage cost.  It will also be made available at the various events we do while stocks last.