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.