Here are the 6 of the most common reasons why wasabi farms fail.
When you see pictures of wasabi farms similar to that shown above, most people automatically assume that growing wasabi is simple. Nothing is further from the truth.
It is this assumption of simplicity that the potential wasabi grower has made that starts the slide down the slope to failure.
Growing Wasabia japonica is not simple and easy. If it was then everyone would be doing it.
In this article I will look at the 6 main reasons that wasabi farms fail, and they can all be laid at the grower's door. They are not in any particular order. Check the bottom of the page for articles that go into the requirements of a wasabi grower in more detail.
Reason #1 - Not Listening
By this I really mean two things;
- Not doing any research to find out what has gone before, or
- Not taking any notice of what you did find out and barrelling ahead anyway.
While I appreciate that nearly all the information currently available on the Internet (except ours of course) is a load of rubbish and shouldn't be given the time of day, there are some nuggets around that the potential wasabi grower should take some notice of.
Most of the time though, attention is taken of the money and fame to be made by having a wasabi farm, and potential problems are discounted or even ignored.
Before deciding to get involved with a Wasabi growing operation ALL available information should be obtained, reviewed and analysed to find out the best operation and design for YOUR Wasabi farm. Each Wasabi Farm is unique due to environmental and resource factors. You need the services of a Wasabi Growing Specialist and Engineer to identify particular problems and design around them. See below on where to find one.
It is cheaper to purchase information and even bring Wasabi Growing Specialists to talk and visit with you before starting to build your Wasabi Farm than to build a Wasabi Farm that will never grow high quality wasabi.
Reason #2 - Reinventing the Wheel
In my experience this is the most common reason why wasabi farms fail.
What happens is that people get the information and designs they need (sometimes from us) to build, set up and operate their wasabi farm, and then they go ahead and change things by themselves.
This happens because a salesperson tells them that the design or the materials are wrong for this application and then goes ahead and sells them something else. Most times even with a detailed Bill of Material that specifies the specific equipment or materials required, the grower gets suckered into buying something else because it is cheaper or the salespersons commission is better. When that happens it is only when commissioning testing is done that the problems and the changes are discovered.
Even if the grower builds the farm to the design and uses the specified equipment it is not unusual to find before the first harvest that the grower has started "tweeking" their system because they think something needs changing. 99% of the time when this happens complete harvest failure occurs.
As an Engineer I find it difficult to understand why someone should change a perfectly good system to something that is untried before the first harvest has been completed. It is before starting the 2nd planting that MINOR changes can be made to a working system to try and improve it, not during a growing cycle.
You are trying to operate a Commercial Wasabi Farm to make a profit and not operate a Research and Development Farm that will never make a profit.
Reason #3 - Unrealistic Expectations
This really is one that can creep up on you, and you don't realise it until after your first harvest.
It is normally caused before you even start, when assumptions are made with regards to building and operating costs together with the expected returns.
In all cases we always recommend that the person who is investing in the wasabi farm be the one who does most of the work instead of using labourers. If the wasabi grower does not know or understand how the growing system works then they will never get the best out of the system.
Cost overruns occur when non-specialist groups such as hourly paid labourers or casual machine operators come on site without significant supervision. Other specialists such as builders, electricians and plumbers can be held to a fixed price for their part of the build. It is not unheard of for building costs to double because of theft, damage and destruction of materials and equipment, and just plain lazyness and inadequate supervision. Once this happens then it becomes extremely difficult to make a profit at harvest time.
Assumptions made about the expected return at harvest time also contribute to making a loss. See the course "Free Commercial Wasabi Grower" for the details on expectations.
In one case, I went to a wasabi farm with a Bankers cheque in my pocket for a harvest at a price the the grower and I had agreed upon. When I got there the growers accountant was there and told me that they couldn't sell the harvest to me unless the price we were willing to pay was doubled. As we originally agreed to pay the current world market price the grower ended up with a harvest that he couldn't sell and he never replanted. This came about because the grower used all outside contractors to build the farm and the cost over runs were significant (and an accountant who failed to understand the wasabi market).
Using contract labour to build your wasabi farm is not a good idea, and strict control over your building and operating costs must be maintained.
Having silent partners who invest in your wasabi farm can also be a recipe for disaster, as they are only concerned with a return on their investment and do not care about problems such as plants dying. I have heard of silent partners taking over a wasabi farm for pennies on the dollar because there was not a harvest to pay back the silent partners.
Reason #4 - Not Committed
This is probably the most difficult one for potential wasabi growers to understand.
Growing wasabi is not a part time job. You cannot grow quality wasabi while working for someone else.
Growing wasabi takes all your time and effort.
This is even truer if you trying to grow a small number of wasabi plants with a growing system you have just invented or copied from photographs that you found on the Internet with a lot of guesswork.
When you decide that you only want to grow a few wasabi plants (less than 200) just to see if you can, then you are carrying out an experiment with very little commitment. The cost of setting up a small experiment like this is not very much, and if it fails then you can just walk away.
Even if you manage to grow the small number of wasabi plants to final harvest, the system you have used does not scale up very well. Moving from a wasabi growing system that has grown a few hundred plants will not scale up to a wasabi farm that grows 10,000 plants. The requirements of the plants and the resources required are different. Large numbers of plants growing in a mono-culture act and behave different to those being grown together in small numbers.
A case in point was a farmer that I helped built and set up his wasabi farm and I was there for 10 days making sure everything worked properly. The last thing I said to him before I left was to make sure that he carried out a minimum of 3 checks a day (Morning, lunchtime and evening) to make sure the plants carried on growing properly.
Twelve days after I got home I got a panicked phone call that all the plants (10,000) had died.
After some interrogation I finally found out that as soon as I left the farmer was off doing silage from dawn to dusk and relied on the computer system to keep an eye on things. He never went back to visually check on the plants until just before he rang me. The plants died because one of the filters had become blocked and the plants were not getting enough water. This would have been picked up within hours if he was committed to making the wasabi farm a success.
Growing wasabi is not a part time job. You cannot grow quality wasabi while working for someone else.
Reason #5 - Under Capitalised
This is also a relative common cause of failure.
Building the Wasabi farm tends to be the cheap part.
The major cost comes in operating the Wasabi Farm for the 18 months or so after it has been planted before you get the first harvest.
Costs in designing and building the wasabi farm, then the operating costs and your living expenses until the first harvest is something that is easily forgotten about. It is at this point that growers lose their commitment as they panic about putting food on the table for their families.
We always recommend that you have at least twice as much as you need in savings before you totally commit to a full blown wasabi farm. This will be especially important if your plants die before you get to the first harvest stage.
Having someone else to help pay the bills is really useful for at least the first two harvests as that is about the time it takes to get close to breaking even with the expenses so far.
Jumping in at the deep end might seem like a good idea when you start, but running out of money half way through the growing cycle is a nightmare.
You need to make sure that you can pay all your bills and commitments for the 2 years it can take to build the wasabi farm from a bare site to getting a harvest, and getting some return on your investment.
In some places there are grants and subsidies available for innovative startups like a wasabi farm, but you need to make sure that you meet all their criteria before you start. Most will only pay for things after the grant has been approved, and anything before comes out of your pocket.
The major cost comes in operating the Wasabi Farm for the 18 months or so after it has been planted before you get the first harvest.
Reason #6 - Plants Die!
This is nearly always forgotten but it tends to be very important.
When you become a Wasabi Grower you also become a Farmer. In the Farming world you are subject to all the associated problems with keeping plants alive until they can be sold for a profit.
Wasabi is know for being very difficult to grow, and that is not just hyperbole. Wasabi will die when the growing environment moves outside its preferred growing parameters, or it gets diseases or even a massive aphid infection.
There are also a couple of diseases that appear to be specific to wasabi, although research is still going on in this area.
If dying plants are noticed then the wasabi grower must act immediately to isolate the dying plants and become even more vigilant in their inspection of the plants on a daily, sometimes even hourly basis.
There are no miracle cures or sprays for diseased and dying wasabi plants. They must be removed and destroyed immediately.
Cleanliness of the wasabi growing farm is the only known way to keep your wasabi plants healthy and productive.
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