Just Cut n Pasted this over from another thread, seems to fit better here:

OrangeDragon wrote:

EdinWigan wrote:What other crops/stock could be introduced? Is there a new area market, especially with Cambodia's special export status with the US and Europe?

Huge opportunity because of the special export status. We've discussed several crops on 440 in the past, in the Barnyard here, and I've discussed them with others in person.

Exotic mushrooms
Saffron (because the most expensive bit is the labor, which is cheap here)
Properly bred and raised beef
High end poultry and pork
Various fruits
Fancy garlic
Willows


Lots of options, most of them very easy to manage, with high price/kg ratios vs cost/kg. Especially when you can get cheap land in the provinces on soft title (who cares if someone snags it, small loss really) for $200 or so a hec.

You could set up a 10 hec ranch on land like that for about $15,000 with irrigation/etc (presuming a well can be dug) that would be producing $10,000+ per month in a year of heavy work and proper crop choices.

Or on a smaller parcel of land, make mushroom towers. Just build up instead over wide and do layers on layers of irrigated mushroom beds growing high end expensive ones... then package them and export them. Both dry and fresh have high values for little to no costs.

To elaborate on a few of these, in case anyone has the motivation and wants to do one:

Exotic Mushrooms: While truffles, the real fungus gold of the world, are impossible here (MAYBE up in the mountains... but still unlikely) there are a number of expensive mushrooms that are in high demand in the cooking world. You could even manage truffles if you were prepared to make an indoor climate controlled area for them... though it would be difficult they are VERY valuable. A hong Kong couple recently bought a huge 1.5kg white truffle for over $160,000. Easier options would be Portobello, Shiitake and Morel... all pretty easy to grow and in high demand.

Saffron: Worth more per gram than gold, mostly because of the expense of harvesting it because it's very labor intensive. We're in the land of dirt cheap labor, problem is finding an area it will grow and keeping it irrigated.

Proper Beef: This is one channel I think Cambodia has a real shot at. Thailand has already shown success using Dutch AI crossbreeding to grow better milk cattle, and there's currently a high demand in Southern Asia for high quality beef. Currently it's mostly imported, and at high rates because of the expense of import duties as well as frozen transport costs. If Cambodia as a whole could get beef going as an export crop it could spell major changes in their GDP and trade deficit.

High End Poultry and Pork: Much like the beef, but with less opportunity for export and mostly domestic sales. Poultry especially is VERY cheap to maintain and has a fairly high profit margin on things such as geese and exotic chickens like the Silkie.

Fruits and Veg: Grown in scale, common fruits and veg are highly exportable... the issues is in setting up the wholesaler contracts/etc to have somewhere to export them TO and being able to meet the volume demands of such a company. If you can manage that much, you'll have a pretty lucrative cash crop. Especially to America where Chinese produce imports have a bad name but are a necessary evil... giving an alternative option would likely pay off well.

Fancy Garlic: I didn't even know there WAS fancy garlic until about a year ago... but there is. And it's really really expensive actually. Aglio Rosso, Elephant Garlic, etc.

Willows: Willow shoots I don't know much about, but according to a University of Kentucky study you could harvest 4-5 tons/acre and they go for about $7 a lb. That would be $56,000 an acre.

That is a very interesting list. Would anyone like to add to it ?

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Yeah, but China has cold places. Pretty sure an alpaca would melt here.

OrangeDragon wrote:To elaborate on a few of these, in case anyone has the motivation and wants to do one:

Exotic Mushrooms: While truffles, the real fungus gold of the world, are impossible here (MAYBE up in the mountains... but still unlikely) there are a number of expensive mushrooms that are in high demand in the cooking world. You could even manage truffles if you were prepared to make an indoor climate controlled area for them... though it would be difficult they are VERY valuable. A hong Kong couple recently bought a huge 1.5kg white truffle for over $160,000. Easier options would be Portobello, Shiitake and Morel... all pretty easy to grow and in high demand.

Saffron: Worth more per gram than gold, mostly because of the expense of harvesting it because it's very labor intensive. We're in the land of dirt cheap labor, problem is finding an area it will grow and keeping it irrigated.

Proper Beef: This is one channel I think Cambodia has a real shot at. Thailand has already shown success using Dutch AI crossbreeding to grow better milk cattle, and there's currently a high demand in Southern Asia for high quality beef. Currently it's mostly imported, and at high rates because of the expense of import duties as well as frozen transport costs. If Cambodia as a whole could get beef going as an export crop it could spell major changes in their GDP and trade deficit.

High End Poultry and Pork: Much like the beef, but with less opportunity for export and mostly domestic sales. Poultry especially is VERY cheap to maintain and has a fairly high profit margin on things such as geese and exotic chickens like the Silkie.

Fruits and Veg: Grown in scale, common fruits and veg are highly exportable... the issues is in setting up the wholesaler contracts/etc to have somewhere to export them TO and being able to meet the volume demands of such a company. If you can manage that much, you'll have a pretty lucrative cash crop. Especially to America where Chinese produce imports have a bad name but are a necessary evil... giving an alternative option would likely pay off well.

Fancy Garlic: I didn't even know there WAS fancy garlic until about a year ago... but there is. And it's really really expensive actually. Aglio Rosso

, Elephant Garlic, etc.

Willows: Willow shoots I don't know much about, but according to a University of Kentucky study you could harvest 4-5 tons/acre and they go for about $7 a lb. That would be $56,000 an acre.

I have grown plenty of the Elephant Garlic, but it is not that popular cause it does not have a strong flavor like the other types, but is much easier to remove the skin.
Still great possibilities for goat meat and honey from bees in Cambodia.

Duncan wrote: I have grown plenty of the Elephant Garlic, but it is not that popular cause it does not have a strong flavor like the other types, but is much easier to remove the skin.
Still great possibilities for goat meat and honey from bees in Cambodia.

It's popular in America. And expensive.

The bees are weird here, as discussed in another thread, because they're seasonal and essentially wild. I still think there's a great opportunity for this country in beef production once they get good cows and learn how to raise them. But that's a pretty expensive and land intensive venture... those crops I listed yield high profits on small amounts of land.

OrangeDragon wrote:

Duncan wrote: I have grown plenty of the Elephant Garlic, but it is not that popular cause it does not have a strong flavor like the other types, but is much easier to remove the skin.
Still great possibilities for goat meat and honey from bees in Cambodia.

It's popular in America. And expensive.

The bees are weird here, as discussed in another thread, because they're seasonal and essentially wild.

I still think there's a great opportunity for this country in beef production once they get good cows and learn how to raise them. But that's a pretty expensive and land intensive venture... those crops I listed yield high profits on small amounts of land.

As in that thread, local bees ,,just like the local villagers , are weird, they are seasonal in their work and essentially wild, which is why you would have to cross breed them with imports. Yes, I'm talking about both the bees and the villagers.

Way too much work for me, far too much risk and too much start-up capital needed...but cultivating prawns would be interesting. I understand it's quite difficult.

Growing bamboo, however, sounds more like my style.

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