The Mushroom Hype

[swissie]

At least in my neck of the woods, everybody grows some sort of mushroom these days. The price must be high. Before that, it was duck's, before that it was chilies, before that it was pigs, before that it was ...........?

The old story: If the price is high, everybody including his uncle is growing (or raising) that. With the result, that eventually prices will collapse (oversupply). Thais have problems with Anty-Cyclical behavior and the "Demand and Supply" fundamentals in general.

So, my question would be: What is the most undesirable crop (or animal) at the present time as far as price/profitability is concerned? Or in other words: What do Thais not plant or raise at this time?

Thanks & cheers.

[peterb0576]

To look outside of The box is not very thai,like chillies must be grown when everyone else grows theirs in chilli season so price is down but if waited a extra month price could double,best way is to see if what is being grown can be grown a month or 2 later,yes they will say your crazy farang has no idea about chilli etc

But the price is higher when less is about to us farang makes good business sense

[stoli]

Grow artichokes. I will be your first customer, and pay what you are asking. Wow, do I miss them.

[IsaanAussie]

Ask about rubber being the next to lose favour. Low prices and no labour as many more trees are becoming available to tap.

[cooked]

Grow artichokes. I will be your first customer, and pay what you are asking. Wow, do I miss them.

I miss them too but I really don't think that globe artichokes would grow here. Nobody would eat them anyway.

[swissie]

Grow artichokes. I will be your first customer, and pay what you are asking. Wow, do I miss them.

I miss them too but I really don't think that globe artichokes would grow here. Nobody would eat them anyway.

Some 15 years ago, I was told that no Thai's will ever eat a hamburger (beef) and french fries (too much salt). And today.........?

Would gladly take up the artichokes, but I am afraid my life expectancy will not allow me to reap the benefits of it.

Cheers.

[riceyummm]

Grow artichokes. I will be your first customer, and pay what you are asking. Wow, do I miss them.

I miss them too but I really don't think that globe artichokes would grow here. Nobody would eat them anyway.

The biggest and maybe best artichokes are grown around Watsonville Ca. The cool summer fog known as the marine layer (also the nickname for ladies that hang around the front gate at ​Camp Pendelton) seems to appeal to the artichoke. I don't think there's such a clime anywhere in Thailand. Mediteranean artichokes are smaller but might do well in Northwestern Thailand. They taste fine.

Two years ago there were a couple of locals farming crickets in my village. They did very well and now there are cricket tanks in every other yard with more being built daily. That can't go on for long. That's too bad as we get a lot of free crickets now.

Edited July 24, 2013 by riceyummm

[swissie]

To look outside of The box is not very thai,like chillies must be grown when everyone else grows theirs in chilli season so price is down but if waited a extra month price could double,best way is to see if what is being grown can be grown a month or 2 later,yes they will say your crazy farang has no idea about chilli etc

But the price is higher when less is about to us farang makes good business sense

My Thai-Neighbor claims, that growing chili "out of season" will require irrigation. Unless having "free-water" = too expensive! I mentioned, that we have "free-water". His reply: To much work!

That of course can kill any project in Thailand. We have therefore decided to play the lottery more often.

Cheers.

[teletiger]

Too much work!.

You have, of course, heard the story of the Westerner instructing the Asian in the art of commerce? To cut a long story short.....after 40 years of hard work, investing, minding the business....

"You can retire, happy, spend time with your family, enough money for anything you want"..........

"40 years to get where I am today?" came the reply.

Regards.

[Canada]

Ask about rubber being the next to lose favour. Low prices and no labour as many more trees are becoming available to tap.

Wifey keeps wanting me to plant rubber. I keep telling her to wait and watch the price go through the floor and everyone try to sell their trees for lumber or even the whole plot. Everybody's planting rubber. They'll kill it, just like they did lamyai and everything else that does well for a bit.

[tingtong]

Rubber is very labor intense...damn thing needs to be tapped every other day, or about.

As long as thai labor is cheaper than some other countries, like Msia, those are the first to go down the drain...

As for the mushroom topic:

today on the village market the going price for Khon Kao was 120thb/kg!

even though some other was selling the "jungle" mushroom, dont ask me what price...

i told my wife she sells too cheap for 90...unfortunate we dont have the quantity right now to make the commute to the market viable.

As long as mushroom is more expensive than chicken for one i think the market is not too saturated!

[IsaanAussie]

Around my area in the village mushrooms are sold at 20 baht a bag, not by the kilo but by the "feed the family" appearance. In the local market straw mushrooms are sold at 100 to 150 baht per kilo as are many other "lets go gather some mushrooms before someone else takes them all" naturally occurring strains. If you can sell in your village at 90 baht without going anywhere, well done. My wife sells at 100 baht baseline. But these actually keep. I eat the ones that have been in the fridge for over a week and they are delicious.