Sulawesi Monthong Durian Export in Tolai

“You’ll think you’re in Bali when you get to Tolai,” a friend told me. “why? – you’ll see when you get there.”

I didn’t see anything that made me think of Bali as we left Parigi Moutong and drove the 30km south along the east coast of Central Sulawesi to Tolai City.

The road was flat and lined with dusty shops that opened at intervals to rice fields, the steep mountains in the distance. We could have been anywhere in Indonesia.

But as we got closer to Tolai the road suddenly became lined with colorful bougainvilleas. Small spirit houses cropped up in the rice fields and every house was fronted by an ornate Balinese family temple. Someone was even building the ogoh-ogoh in their front yard. Nyepi Day

I popped out of the car to take a picture of several front-yard temples in a row along the road.

Three men in the house behind turned to stare at me, startled by my sudden appearance. I looked back, and realized their hands were full of big Monthong durians. They were weighing the durians in big woven baskets and stacking them high on pallets in triangular piles. I’d stumbled across a durian warehouse.

We had arrived to Tolai – one of the main areas for collecting Sulawesi Monthong durians for exporting to China.

Tolai Gudang Durian

At Tolai City, we turned right at the only intersection and parked in front of what looked to be a bicycle shop. There was a big sign saying BUY AND SELL DURIAN, but no durians in sight.

I called our local contact, Ilham, to let him know we’d arrived and a few minutes later a head poked out of the shop and waved us inside.

The shop was stuffed with things for sale, the floor space filled with children’s trikes and training wheels. But turning a corner at the back the shop suddenly opened up to a cavernous garage space filled with durians.

It was a Gudang Durian – a warehouse or a collecting point. Meri, the owner of the gudang, told us that they were expecting a delivery of 7 tons MORE durian that evening. We were looking at about 3 tons of durian (3,000kg or 6,600lbs) – and tonight they would ship all 10 tons of durian to a bigger gudang in Palu City, not far from the port.

To survive the journey, the durians are cut-harvested instead of being allowed to tree-fall – just like in Thailand. We could clearly see where the stems had been cut and the abscission point, where the durian naturally falls by itself, was just swelling and cracking.

Meri explained that here in Indonesia people prefer smooth, fully ripe – sometimes even overripe durian. They don’t like firm or hard durian.

So the durians here are picked at 90% maturity and ripened to very soft, very squishy texture that has a nice yellow color. The ripening process takes only 4-5 days – unlike in Thailand where the durians are harvested more immature and a typical Monthong needs 7-10 days off the tree to become squishy soft.

Meri cracked open two Monthongs for us to sample.

One had been picked 4-days previously, and the other had been picked 5-days previously.

We tasted the 5-Day Cut Monthong first. It had a darker yellow color, but the skin still looked kind of smooth and waxy. But as soon as our fingers broke through the skin, it became smooth as melted butter. It was very, very soft – our Thai friends might call it แฉะ 🤣 – with a sharp sweetness. To me it also had vanilla gasoline aroma that was slightly off-putting. For my taste, it was overripe.

Next we tasted the 4-Day Cut Monthong. The skin still looked completely smooth and waxy as well, but as soon as I touched a piece the skin dimpled like a punched pillow. It had a denser, thicker cream than the 5-day-old Monthong, very sweet but more mild and lacking the sharpness I found off-putting in the previous durian. This was much more to my taste.

The texture on both was buttery and really smooth – maybe thanks to the ripening agent Etefon. Since Monthong often ripens unevenly, etefon is really important for the cut-harvest export.

Later on, we had the opportunity to try a tree-ripe Monthong that hadn’t had etefon applied – yet. The owner of the warehouse told us that he sometimes still uses etefon on his tree-ripe Monthong to help the huge fruits ripen evenly.

This one was had just arrived to the warehouse, and although I definitely preferred it’s fresh sweet flavor over the cut-harvested ones, the texture was really uneven. Some parts were crunchy, some parts were buttery smooth, and overall it was a grainy experience.

Meri said that her gudang had shipped over 100 tons of Monthong durian to Palu City so far this season alone, and in some years they could send more.

That was a lot, I thought – and only Monthong. I knew that Sulawesi was famous for Monthong – but why Monthong?

Meri shrugged – it’s just what her parents and other people’s parents planted when they arrived to Tolai from Bali over 30 years ago.

How Bali Changed Tolai

In 1986, the Indonesian Transmigration Program published a report listing Tolai as a successful model for other transmigration villages to copy.

The program was originally initiated in the early 1900’s by Dutch Administration and was supposed tobe voluntary, moving Indonesians living in poverty from high-population-density-areas to low-population or forested areas that could be opened for agriculture. After independence, the Indonesian government continued the program and at its peak between 1979 and 1984 over 535,000 families (almost 2.5 million people) moved out of Java and Bali to other parts of Indonesia.

Parigi, just 30km north of Tolai, was one of the villages selected by the Indonesian government to host migrants from Bali. New arrivals received 2.5 hectares of free land, a stipend, free seeds and agricultural tools, and some free food.

But at the end of the 1970’s even Parigi was becoming over-populated, and the Balinese migrants requested permission to start another village at Tolai. There they still received the free land from the government, but did not get the same support and oversight as at other transmigration villages. The government saw this independent initiative as a sign that the program was working well.

But without free seeds for rice or soybeans, the migrants in Tolai planted what they wanted. Which apparently, was Monthong Durian.

Visiting Tolai’s Monthong Farms

Leaving Meri’s durian warehouse, we hopped in her Hilux and headed through the flat gravel roads of the rice fields to the foot of the mountains.

“All of that is durian,” Ilham told us, waving vaguely at the mountains. “Durian mountain.”

Although the mountains looked far away, it only took us about 10 minutes until the Hilux was pointed firmly up on a ridge that plunged steeply on either side. Any durian that fell would be in the ravine in a bouncing 12 seconds.

The durian trees were intercropped with cloves and cacao. At a distance, it looked verdant and green.

Closer up was another story.

The durian trees were also obviously sick.

The Disease Killing Sulawesi Monthongs

Ilham said there was a mysterious disease ravaging the Monthong trees – and it effected only the old Monthong trees, not other varieties – and that the problem was noticed in 2022.

The Monthong trees had lasted 30 years without much problems, but suddenly it was a durian pandemic.

Some farmers were reporting that up to 70% of their Monthong durians were falling without developing properly. We opened one of these, to see what it looked like.

It was like the aril – the durian meat – hadn’t developed properly. The seed was black, the white flesh hard and sugar-less, and some parts almost see-through.

It was very weird.

I told Ilham I’d post about it here and see if anyone had some suggestions for them. So if you have any ideas why their Monthong durian is falling immature, please do post in the comments below!

Buyer in the garden

As we headed down the mountain, we noticed a truck getting packed full with Monthong durians. We stopped so that I could take a photo.

The farmer and his family were there, watching the durians get weighed, but the buyer was the one who had cut the durians off the tree and was about to go sell it to a gudang like Meri’s.

It was clear the buyer was busy and not that interested in talking, but he did answer how many durians he had just purchased and loaded in his truck – just under 1,000kg.

Tolai Durian Lokal

While I was off taking a picture, Ilham waved down a passing motorbike to borrow a smoke.

It turned out the guy was carrying a single durian in his side baskets. Ilham shouted at us to come over and try it.

This one was a Durian Lokal – meaning it was not a Monthong. It was an unknown seedling durian, and by the look and smell of the fruit it was from a really old tree.

This durian was incredible. It had an spicy kick like black pepper sprinkled in vodka, a thick ice-creamy texture, and a slight menthol numbing effect that took both Richard and I by surprise.

This was the first Durian Lokal we’d seen all day, and I couldn’t belive that we’d managed to be in the right place at the right time to try it!

Air Terjun Baturiti

As the afternoon wore on, it became increasingly muggy. Storm clouds in the distance threatened to break on the mountain, and I was glad that the last item on our agenda was the Baturiti waterfall.

We’d been looking forward to it all day – supposedly we might be able to find a fruit called Buah Jongi (Dillenia serata), which is endemic to Sulawesi.

We stopped by another Gudang Durian to pick up Ilham’s friend Agus, and drove the very short distance into what appeared to be a durian farm. There we parked our car, carefully not crushing an infant durian tree hiding in the grass.

The path bee-lined in a straight line through a mature durian orchard, opening up after 300 meters or so to an incredible Artocarpus tree.

We saw multiple Dillenia trees along the way, but none were fruiting. After poking around around the trunk, Agus found some intensely aromatic flowers.

The aroma was almost like frangipanni flowers. I could see making a perfume out of it! and I could see the little fruit developing in the middle.

We followed Agus and Ilham to a flight of stairs flanked by some Balinese statues. A sign was posted with prices for entry, but nobody was around to issue a ticket.

So we just walked right in.

We hadn’t brought swimming clothes – but at this point in the afternoon, the distant rainstorm made the temperature too oppressive to not to seek relief in the green waters.

I jumped in fully clothed.

The waterfall was surprisingly deep. I couldn’t touch the bottom, and it looked like there might be some popular jump spots around the rocky cavern.

Ilham and Agus sat on the banks and smoked while we cooled off in the refreshing waters, and then we off back down through the durian orchards – which Agus seemed to be really familiar with. He took off the cement path several times to look at specific trees, circling back empty handed.

But then Ilham zigged off the path. Squawking, he pulled a huge Monthong durian that had fallen onto the cement path. Excitement was high as he and Agus set about dissecting it, each taking one side and pulling it apart.

More Tree-Ripe Monthong

The Monthong gave way with a sudden crack to reveal the most perfect puffy Monthong durian. The flesh was a chrysanthemum yellow, the the thick smooth skin buckling and cracking and starting to pull away the tender butter cream within.

I was hoping that Agus was either a durian buyer for this garden or the actual owner, but either way – this Monthong was definitely going to be enjoyed by us.

Although it was still super sweet, the flavor had taken on rounder notes like cooked caramel and vanilla nad lost some of the spring-onion sharpness.

It was very, very, very good.

It was also super-duper thick and filling!

We were full of durian and full of new information and experiences. It was the final high to our action-packed durian day exploring Sulawesi’s Monthong export out of Tolai!

Where we stayed: Zaitun Hotel

We stayed at the Zaitun Hotel located on a side-street of the vertical part of Tolai’s T intersection.

I didn’t see this hotel on any booking apps, but it was easy enough to make a booking through WhatsApp. The hotel was fine – large room, clean enough, functioning wifi – but the moment I turned on the shower the air filled with a metallic tang like blood. Although the water was clear, showering here was like taking a vampire bath.

So after one night in Tolai, we left late in the afternoon and headed down the coast to keep durian hunting on the banks of Lake Poso.

Sulawesi Durian Hunting Map

Use this Durian Hunting Map to find all the durian stalls and publicly open farms that we visited on our trip! Click on the map pin to open a blog post with more info.