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Down the Rabbit Hole – The cost of a Wasabi Farm
The other day I was asked how deep does the rabbit hole go in terms of money you could spend on setting up a Wasabi Farm.
While this was a very good question, there is not really a very good and concise answer. Each Wasabi Farm is different in that the environment, weather, seasonal changes, etc., all make a significant difference to the monetary costs of setting a Wasabi Farm up.
The equipment and materials needed for whatever method you decide to use are different and the costs of these depend on your local suppliers. An example would be where a grower wants to use one of the gravel methods that we talk about in our Gravel Growing module. There are three different ways of doing this and the materials required are different for each. What one do you pick?
In my view I would go for the least cost option as this will give you a better ROI (return on investment) assuming all other things are equal with regard to the final crop. i.e. quality and quantity.
The only person who can sort out the best option for your area, block of land, financial and labour resources, etc., etc. is you. Sure I can supply you with the information you need to do your sums with regard to the costings, but it needs to be you who makes the final decision in terms of how much you are willing to spend on building your Wasabi Farm.
The fact is that the rabbit hole can be as shallow or as deep as you want. The more plants you want, and the further away from the plants preferred environment your climate is then the deeper that rabbit hole goes.
The cost of the information we supply that you need to make those life altering decisions remain constant and is dependent upon the complexity of the system you want to use.
When we started growing Wasabi back in 1990, the cost of information was low in terms of money – but it was nearly all wrong, so it wasn’t really low in terms of time and resources. These days we are able to sell you the information that we learnt by trial and error for a reasonable sum, so you do not waste your time reinventing the wheel. That is the start of the rabbit hole. How deep you go is up to you!
Enjoy the trip.
The last farm we built was in a 40m x 40m structure, had environmental controls, was capable of housing 40,000 plants and cost in the region of US$500,000.00 to set up, plant and operate until the first crop. That I would regard as a shallow to middle depth rabbit hole. 🙂 It also required a block of land of approximately 2000 sq m in size to house the supporting operations and the growing area.
In case you don’t know who I am and why you should listen to me about Wasabi Growing is sort of spelt out in my very abridged information below.
Michel Van Mellaerts (The Wasabi Maestro) is the recognized World authority and expert on the practical Growing, Processing and Marketing of Wasabia japonica. He and his wife have been commercially growing Wasabia japonica longer than anyone else outside Japan.
Trained as an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer he has invented and installed many improved growing systems into their farms. These enable high quality Wasabi to be grown anywhere in the World.
The Wasabi Maestroes have set up commercial Wasabi growing farms from the Arctic Circle to Southern New Zealand, including the Equator. They have worked with individual growers, national governments, and investment groups on four continents.
These growing systems have reduced growing times by nearly 67%, improved yield and quality of the Wasabi rhizome, and increased the levels of active ingredients by nearly 100%. It is these active ingredients that independent scientific studies show kills cancer cells and improves human health.
They pioneered the use of Wasabia japonica in the Nutraceutical and Medical industries. They are at the leading edge of research into the benefits of Wasabi on human and animal health.
The Wasabi Maestroes offer a Training and Consultancy service for potential and actual Wasabi growers who only want to learn from the best. Others spend their time floundering around trying to find out what information is useful and what isn’t.
The Training has been proven and improved over the last 20 years plus of personal commercial Wasabi growing. This has been hands on, getting wet and dirty work – not guesswork from behind a desk.