For all those who want to try today.
Over the last 20 plus years there have been in excess of 10,000 enquiries from people who say they want to build a Wasabi Farm.
Of these, 99.75% don't want to build it now but sometime in the future when;
- The economy improves
- When they get more information
- When they get more money or win the lottery
- When they find the right piece of land
- When they retire and have time to spare
- The "right time" arrives.
- There is no risk of failure.
In that time have any of them come back ready to start building their Wasabi Farm?
The answer is a resounding NO!
Why am I telling you this?
I suppose that I am writing this post firstly because of frustration that no one seems to have any belief in themselves anymore to take a chance. And secondly because the majority of people want us to take all the risk and supply them with a written guarantee that they will be successful.
There are even some that want us to provide all the designs and growing information without any charge, and some even want us to provide all the money as well for them to have a "try" at growing wasabi.
The Realities of Business
As you can see from the above the majority of people who think they want to operate a Wasabi growing business have no real concept of what that really means.
Just getting a commercial Wasabi Farm set up and operating is a major undertaking with a time scale of 3* - 12 months to get to the point where Wasabia japonica plants are growing. [*Fastest we have ever done it, but we knew what we were doing, had the land and the materials.]
After that there is another 12 - 15 months growing time before the Wasabia japonica plants are ready for harvest in order to get back some of the money you have spent to date.
With all that you are looking from 15 -30 months after starting before you have Fresh Wasabi available for sale - that is assuming that you start building today.
If you do not start before winter sets in with snow, rain and cold, then you might need to wait until next spring to get the Wasabi Farm finished. That puts you back another 5 - 6 months.
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right” – Napolean Hill
Currently there are not enough Wasabi Farms to satisfy demand.
Back in 2015 the market for Wasabia japonica fresh rhizomes and other 100% Pure Wasabia japonica products started to increase. See the graph next door.
Every year since then the demand has increased as the flavour of fresh Wasabia japonica has found more devotees.
This has become more pronounced as a number of Government departments have started to prosecute manufacturers who falsely state their ingredients.
In the EU there were over 25 products forcibly removed from store shelves when a random analysis showed that the amount of claimed "wasabi" in the ingredients list was zero. The "wasabi" was in fact a mixture of horseradish, mustard, artificial colours and flavours. The manufacturers were fined a significant amount of money, but to date there is no noticeable change in manufacturers practices.
In Australia, there was a similar purge with large fines and product recalls.
While this has happened in a number of other places as well, there does not appear to be an ongoing concerted effort worldwide to remove these fake "wasabi" products permanently.
Currently there is a window of opportunity for new Wasabia japonica growers to enter the market to meet the increasing demand. Is that going to be you?
As well as demand increasing with no extra Wasabi Farms coming on line, the price of Wasabia japonica has also been increasing at an average of 8 - 12% per year. In the last six months (Jan to June 2017) the price has increased 10%. It is expected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future.
Does this mean that you need to build a large Wasabi Farm straight away?
The short answer to that is NO!
When we started we had some planks to make an enclosure, a plastic liner, some road gravel and a small aquarium pump (55 gph, 3 watts, 1' 3" max head, 6' cord.).
This small raised bed enabled us to start with 100 plants. We doubled the bed to 200 beds just by adding more gravel and another small pump. That worked well enough for us to get some idea what we were getting into and what the plants grew like.
From there we added a water cooler and finally after about 8 months we designed and built a purpose Wasabi Farm with 5000 plants. This provided our first full blown commercial crop.
From those small beginnings we have enlarged the growing operation continually, but still we cannot keep up with the increasing demand.
My wife and I made the decision to try to grow Wasabia japonica even though we did not know where that decision might eventually lead us. It has brought us to this point in our lives where I am now 70 years of age, my wife is younger and still runs marathons. We have been growing, promoting, processing and marketing Wasabia japonica since 1990 all round the world.
As I look ahead I am fearful that all the knowledge and experience that we have gained from growing Wasabia japonica will be lost because potential Wasabi Farm operators are waiting for everything to be perfect before that decide to try.
So let me ask you if you are ready to try today?
If you are then contact me here and we can start to get you on your way to becoming a Wasabia japonica grower today.
Don't wait for the right time to live your life. You're on the verge of something big, if you don't participate it will pass you by.
As Ray Kroc (founder of McDonalds) said “The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.”
Currently you are in the right place at the right time, but now you need to do something about it.
Are you going to do something about it?
If you are then contact me here and we can start to get you on your way to becoming a Wasabia japonica grower today.
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