Mushroom farm, easy to make money, why Thai think that this is the solution to become millionaire ?

[grkt]

hello,

do you know anybody who has made a successful mushroom farm ?

it seems the solution for Thai to make a lot of money.

But if it was so easy, why aren't they all doing it ?

Thanks

[Lungstib]

We gave it a try, or I should say my wife did, but as with many things there are problems. The building and arrangement to stack the bags was quite cheap. No big outlay. But most growers buy a bag that is ready to be laid up on the rack. Starting from scratch you need to fill a bag with the correct growing medium, sterilize it by steaming and inject the spawn of the mushroom. Quite technical and expensive. Buying this completed item can be quite expensive and you are open to the usual, "ah, those wood chips were hard to get after the floods" type of comment. You need a good supply of chemical-free clean water and have to be there to water every few hours. 

  It was the sales that brought our business to a halt. There is often a dealer/buyer who will take them off you at about half the supermarket price. There was always the game of "not the right shape, size, color, etc." meaning they want to buy cheaper.  If you don't sell to them you then need a market stall to sell directly to the public which means another person who has all day to sit and sell. The money was just about enough for one lone operator but not enough for two. And of course, you need transport to deliver. All in all, a small profit but at least not too hard a days work.

[CLW]

Without going to much into details and definitely not meant to be racist. Mushroom farming is one of the many things Thais do from hearsay and think they can make a fortune with no work and investment. Bottom line is, if it works, every body will copy it and prices hit rock bottom.
Or it doesn't work like they think as most Thais don't have a strong desire to continue some difficult work or process, it ends up as a waste of money and the usual excuse it didn't work for them.

Example from the past were strawberries, asparagus, limes, melons, shrimps and of course mushrooms.

[grkt]

So it's possible to make some money to cover the cost but not huge profit ?

 

Is it easy to sell ?

 

 

[cornishcarlos]

13 hours ago, CLW said:

Mushroom farming is one of the many things Thais do from hearsay and think they can make a fortune with no work and investment

100% agree...

Our neighbors set up, telling us these magical profit margins they would make..

They lasted one harvest and I didn't notice any new SUV in the driveway 

[CLW]

So it's possible to make some money to cover the cost but not huge profit ?
 
Is it easy to sell ?
 
 

Read the post from lungstib.

If you want to make some profit, you would have to invest in all the equipment first.
If you buy only the bags, I can see not much profit from that given the obstacles you could face such as insects and diseases.
Mushrooms are also highly perishable and without cooling facilities your harvested product won't store for long.

[thoongfoned]

5 hours ago, grkt said:

So it's possible to make some money to cover the cost but not huge profit ?

 

Is it easy to sell ?

 

 

selling is the important bit, need a "market" before investing to much. 

wife had a little set up years ago, 3/4000 baht worth of spores delivered, put in a little "hut" we built for free from this and that we had about. ie bamboo, plastic sheets. water and away you go. mainly sold in her/family shop in the village, 200 gram bags 20 baht i think per bag, also drive by sales from the children when they wanted extra money... broke even in the first few weeks? then a slow sort of "income" for another month plus before the spores started to no produce that much, i think it lasted for max 3 months, not even beer money returns, daily... but better then nothing.... oh wife and friends had free mushrooms for 3 ish months.. thai people do like a mushroom.... wifes getting wild ones at the mo, 2 plus kg every morning before she starts her work for the day.....

[theguyfromanotherforum]

My wife's family in the south grows mushrooms among many other fruits including rubber trees. They have been doing it for decades and no one ever expects to become a millionaire raising mushrooms only.

 

Thing is, even today where they have tens of millions in land and bank account, they still choose to live relatively poor.

 

Personally I don't understand, but to each their own, I guess.

[surfdog]

can explain very easy, there are 4-5 big farming groups on Facebook, a great wealth of information.  And then there are the 'truthful' stories written by the farmers doing new things and making so much money, like you said, melons, limes, Pak Waan, Sweet Potato, Cocoa, Gac, Passionfruit, Inca nut, New types of bananas, Chinese Rosewood, etc.

 

There are also the 'truthful' posts written up by people advertising they will buy the above products, but only at huge amounts, like 10,000 kg per month at 90 baht/kg, usually referencing some foreign demand.  

 

So the combination of those two types of posts dupes some people, they think they are putting two and two together themselves, but both are actually marketing pitches.

 

The real person behind these truthful posts, is the nurserys and seed sellers :)  They are making the money.  In case of the mushrooms, it is the farmers creating the pre-inoculated bags, they will make 10-20 baht per bag.

 

Often Thai farmers will try to help others and say don't believe all these stories, but people will want to believe what they want to believe.  You are absolutely correct about how the market price will drop, best thing to do is never get into any farming business which you have seen documented on tv or news as being the next profitable thing.

 

The real stable position for farmers here because of local markets is to diversify, King Rama IX promoted diversification, design of plots, water management. 

[CLW]

can explain very easy, there are 4-5 big farming groups on Facebook, a great wealth of information.  And then there are the 'truthful' stories written by the farmers doing new things and making so much money, like you said, melons, limes, Pak Waan, Sweet Potato, Cocoa, Gac, Passionfruit, Inca nut, New types of bananas, Chinese Rosewood, etc.
 
There are also the 'truthful' posts written up by people advertising they will buy the above products, but only at huge amounts, like 10,000 kg per month at 90 baht/kg, usually referencing some foreign demand.  
 
So the combination of those two types of posts dupes some people, they think they are putting two and two together themselves, but both are actually marketing pitches.
 
The real person behind these truthful posts, is the nurserys and seed sellers :)  They are making the money.  In case of the mushrooms, it is the farmers creating the pre-inoculated bags, they will make 10-20 baht per bag.
 
Often Thai farmers will try to help others and say don't believe all these stories, but people will want to believe what they want to believe.  You are absolutely correct about how the market price will drop, best thing to do is never get into any farming business which you have seen documented on tv or news as being the next profitable thing.
 
The real stable position for farmers here because of local markets is to diversify, King Rama IX promoted diversification, design of plots, water management. 

Couldn't have explained it better [emoji106]

Diversify to small and proper working units and if something is making good returns expand slowly but always have a backup from your other crops/animals.

[thoongfoned]

when talking about making bahts (clear profit) from farming this or that here (say per month) what  you want/think is good? lets say forget about the set up costs...

when we first started planting trees, i used to dream of 25/30,000 baht per month....

the mushrooms at peak would have been around 300 baht a day, but not for long...

[grkt]

4 hours ago, surfdog said:

can explain very easy, there are 4-5 big farming groups on Facebook, a great wealth of information.  And then there are the 'truthful' stories written by the farmers doing new things and making so much money, like you said, melons, limes, Pak Waan, Sweet Potato, Cocoa, Gac, Passionfruit, Inca nut, New types of bananas, Chinese Rosewood, etc.

 

There are also the 'truthful' posts written up by people advertising they will buy the above products, but only at huge amounts, like 10,000 kg per month at 90 baht/kg, usually referencing some foreign demand.  

 

So the combination of those two types of posts dupes some people, they think they are putting two and two together themselves, but both are actually marketing pitches.

 

The real person behind these truthful posts, is the nurserys and seed sellers :)  They are making the money.  In case of the mushrooms, it is the farmers creating the pre-inoculated bags, they will make 10-20 baht per bag.

 

Often Thai farmers will try to help others and say don't believe all these stories, but people will want to believe what they want to believe.  You are absolutely correct about how the market price will drop, best thing to do is never get into any farming business which you have seen documented on tv or news as being the next profitable thing.

 

The real stable position for farmers here because of local markets is to diversify, King Rama IX promoted diversification, design of plots, water management. 

 

 

So true. Farmers around pretend to help by selling the mushroom bags. But at the same time they also said that we need to invest a lot to be able to sell our mushrooms, because wholesale won't buy if we have just few kgs...

I guess that they really don't care to cheat other Thai... and especially Thai with farang partners...

 

 

 

 

 

[thoongfoned]

10 minutes ago, grkt said:

 

 

So true. Farmers around pretend to help by selling the mushroom bags. But at the same time they also said that we need to invest a lot to be able to sell our mushrooms, because wholesale won't buy if we have just few kgs...

I guess that they really don't care to cheat other Thai... and especially Thai with farang partners...

 

 

 

 

 

if you really like the idea of the mushroom farm have a look at "packdee" facebook page, he does workshops/farmstays for mushroom cultivation ect and in the past has given good advice, from what i have read.. 

[surfdog]

15 hours ago, grkt said:

 

 

So true. Farmers around pretend to help by selling the mushroom bags. But at the same time they also said that we need to invest a lot to be able to sell our mushrooms, because wholesale won't buy if we have just few kgs...

I guess that they really don't care to cheat other Thai... and especially Thai with farang partners...

 

 

 

 

 

There is potential in mushroom farming, but I think maybe more potential in selling the pre-inoculated bags, good way to increase profits.