5 AUGUST 2000, Page 28

Smell of success

THE durian fruit tastes quite nice but smells of drains in which a rat has died, so the Malaysian government, as governments do, needs a policy. Already it has identified durians as an important fruit crop, says its head of horticultural research, and plans to make Malaysia a major durian player. What about the smell, though? Packaging might help, he thinks. I see this as a question for an economist. His response would be to postulate a sweet-smelling durian.