growing orchids for profit

[sarasara]

My friend is giving up his milking herd in Northern Ireland as he now lives alone and he wants to start working from greenhouses.
He is interested in the idea of growing very rare and expensive orchards for sale.
I'd be grateful if anyone could tell me how does one find out how to obtain rare and expensive orchids/orchid seeds like that?
Thanks for your help,
Sara.

[janet_a]

the saying that applies to horses applies also to orchids:

"To make a small fortune in orchids, you need to start out with a large fortune."

i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no one in the business as a sole proprieter is making much of a profit, if any. jerry will have a better idea on this though.

does your friend have any experience growing anything in greenhouses in his climate?

[Ellen]

I don't want to be one to put a damper on orchid enthusiasm, but your friend needs to understand that growing "rare and expensive" orchids isn't quite like growing tomatoes or lettuce or basil. If he intends to grow orchids from flask or, worse yet, from seed, it's a long, slow process, and it may take years to get plants to the point where they can be sold. In the meantime, he needs to water them and heat them (probably all year round in Ireland!) and spray them and fertilize them and generally care for them. And of course it goes without saying that he needs some prior experience growing the things. He needs to do some market research. To start up he will need deep pockets, a green thumb, and a lot of patience. And he better not think about giving up the dairy farm day job. Ever.

[arleneg]

I agree with Ellen.

Not only he will need the experience in growing rare/expensive orchids, he will have to consider doing orchid shows/exhibitions (a good marketing venue). That will involve travelling. Again, those will add to the costs. If not that, he still has to consider getting exporting permission (i.e. CITES) from nearby countries. I'm sure he will get buyers outside of Ireland.

[Anton]

To put it simply and to add to what everyone else is saying, it takes money to make money and in this game BIG money.

Recently I visited one of the largest growers here in South Australia and he said it took his father over 20 years to set up his business to the point that it became regularly profitable.

You have to set up heating, cooling, fans for air flow, irrigation, water supply etc, all BIG money gobblers.

Is your friend a gambler ??????

[kmarch]

Dear sarasara,

Welcome to the forum. We've got a large group of members from all over the world eager to share their experiences. I think you'll find the forum a helpful place.

To answer your question which was (rephrased):
How do I find out where to buy orchids wholesale?

Performing a simple Google websearch using the phrase "wholsale orchids" produced literally dozens of functional, usable hits. Another source listing wholsale vendors is the Orchid Mall (www.orchidmall.com). If your friend does not have web access, perhaps you can assist him buy supplying him with information. Your friend (if he hasn't already) should start visiting other orchid nuseries and orchid shows and should ask lots of questions. He should join a large orchid society or council like the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) or even the American Orchid Society (AOS) as RHS and AOS publications often refer to wholesale growers in their articles or in advertisements.

Some nursery owners may not want to share their "company secrets" but your friend can still get a lot of info by beign clever about asking questons. for example asking a question like "Do you import or grow from seed?" followed up by, "So you grow form seed, interesting, and may i ask who does your flasking?" Will get you more info than saying "I want to start my own orchid nusery, who is your supplier?"

Where your friend buys his wholesale orchids will somewhat depend on what kind he wants. If he wants Phals he'll probably import from Taiwan or the Philippines as many of the worlds best and largest breeders are found there. If he wants slipper orchids he will probably end up importing form the US, Taiwan, or possibly England (Eric Young Foundation). Since most of your friend's plants will probably come form overseas, a knowledge of CITES and importation laws for your country will be necessary as the movement of orchids across international borders is heavily regulated.

Orchids can be bought wholesale in a variety of sizes from flasks on up to blooming size plants. While flasks are usually the cheapest per plant, the plants will be very small and will take 3-5 years to bloom (perhaps longer depending on what kind of orchid they are). Buying mature orchid plants wholesale will be more expensive per plant, but your friend will be able to turn them around for resale within say 6-8 months (once potted and established) and as blooming orchids usually sell for more than non-blooming orchids, he may get a better price. The stock of most orchid nurseries I know is made up of plants from several different sources, some grown from seed (flasked) some purchased mature size.

I wish your friend well! The world can never have too many orchid nuseries!

[sarasara]

Thank you all folks for such great answers and Kmarch for your helpful submission about wholesale buying, and your good wishes to my friend.
My friend is looking at orchids as a long term prospect along with other possibilities for growing in greenhouses. I was thinking that among other ideas rare wildflowers for sale might be just one possible good addition and a green way of helping to restock the rural landscape. As to his qualifications he comes from a farming family and quite a scientifically minded person. I am sure he can work out temperature, fertilization, pest and other controls.
Yes it is a big challenge to give up dairy farming but circumstances dictate he would be wise to do so as long as other possibilities are there. If you are blessed enough to own a farm then you got to have opportunities for reallocating that resource. It's not as if he is trying to do this from a small suburban house and garden.
He is investigating turning his land over to production of plants for biofuels and considering pulling down some of his cattle sheds and barns to replace them with greenhouses.
Obviously with supermarket globalisation it would be foolish to grow vegetables or herbs-unless you choose something quite rare.
I think the rapid economic growth in his area of the world will provide a local market for orchids as part of his income but as he gets experienced no doubt he can look to branching out into dealing with rarer plants through the net.
As to your point Ellen about energy he is looking at the idea of covering unused areas of the farm including roofs and sun-sided barns with homemade solar panels to provide extra energy to reduce the costs.
Arleneg with the net I think going to shows is not as important as before, I know that from booksellers, specialised antique dealers and others who have found the net is doing much of that work for them, though naturally it would be nice and no doubt helpful to do so.
Janet as to racehorses they are one of the biggest money earners in Ireland, you should visit some of the stables in the Republic to look at how much money trainers are making, though I take you point.
Anton in my experience every business takes loads of investment to make money which is why it is best to start with a portfolio of different money-making schemes and why in the case of orchids he would have to start small with local sales and gradually find his way. He is certainly not thinking of making that his main source of income anytime soon. There is an old business saying "You got to have a bread and butter line" and he knows that. There is another old business saying "You gotta spend money to make money, you gotta have stock to sell stock."
It is never easy to work out how to successfully change your way of making an income but I believe that if you are prepared give time to do the research things gradually become clear. At this stage he has not fully explored the possibilities. There are also other land uses besides farming that can help add up the income if they be found.
I will print out all this stuff and give it to him.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Not only will he have competition from the orient, where growing orchids is a whole lot cheaper than in cool, overcast locations with high labor costs, but he will have to compete with all the orchid lovers that enjoy dabling in retail sales without the need for a lot of return. I imported jungle collected orchids for a few years when it was practical to do so and sold then at local shows (before the internet), and every cent I made went back into orchids. Such people do it for the love of the business, and probably keep prices lower.

[jerrymeola]

I spent 45 minutes writing a reply last week on my vacation only to see it disappeared when the wi-fi INTERNET connection died.

First - there are no 'rare expensive' orchids you can grow to make a living and probably not even to make a profit. Everything (lady-slippers excluded) can be cloned, so nothing needs to be rare. There are over 100,000 species orchids and 300,000 named hybrids so not everything can be in culture and most are scarce as a result.

Many orchids are scarce, not because they are rare but because there is not enough demand to raise them. I can get your friend any orchid cloned for about $1 each. The catch is that the minimum is 2000 and it is 1-3 years in flask and several more till blooming.

Orchids have no value when being raised. Having 1000 'rare (scarce)' orchids does not mean you can sell them. If your friend really wants to make a business he must first determine who wants to buy them and exactly what do they want to buy and in what price range.

My business has been profitable since the first day, but whenever I buy some beautiful exotic orchid I always lose money. A scare desirable orchid may cost be 20-$50 and sell for $30-80, whereas, a more common and equally beautiful orchid may be grown in thousands and sold relatively inexpensive. A $30 dollar investment that many sell for $50 is not good business when I can buy 15 $2 orchids and sell them for $18 in bloom after a year.

Most growers, myself included, invest it 'rare showy' orchids as advertisement not profits. It is not uncommon that the high price orchid you see at a show will be the same one you see for years. It is priced so high no one will buy it and the grower can keep it for show.

Business is a whole different thing. Diseases, irrigation problems. temperature (winter freezes or summer heat), hurricanes, wild animals, thief, and many more eat into profits.

Your friend is off to a bad start as a business. He should think how he would go about selling canned peas. Selling is the same regardless of what you sell. Trying to sell peas when you know nothing about it is the same as selling orchids when you do not know how to sell them.