I like this sentence, can I quote you and save this under my list of meaningful quotes?

Sure brother, no prob at all... I'm just resonating the wisdom of those who came before me.

Izzit? Never realized Tawau Cocoa so famous, but their products sure are good stuff, try if you can find some Hoko 3in1 coco drink in the supermarket, they pwned milo inside out in taste.

I do know agriculture play a great part in contributing to Tawau economy, most of them cash crops(Oil palm and Cocoa, etc), vegetable and fruit farmers do not have too many local demand, the population are quite low in Sabah.

Was classmate to the daughters from the family who operate the largest cocoa plantation and some oil palm plantation during highschool.

This post has been edited by rexis: Apr 16 2008, 11:55 AM

Oh yes brother, it is very famous. The some of quality Tawau cocoa is much better than Ghana one even, which is the standard grading for high grade cocoa.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Apr 16 2008, 06:29 PM

Hi there, I've been reading about the worm breeding and I was wondering where to start? I have 2 frens going for the course, 1 on the 19th and 1 on the 22nd. But I would really like to have a look at the farm myself first to get a clearer picture? Anyone willing to let me see your earthworm farm. Kindly PM me your e-mail or contact number. I'm planning to start this project next week. The IT market is bad, why not we make our money in breeding worm, after all we don't have to monitor them 24/7 still got time to go leveling if anyone playing online game

Hi there, I myself is also in the realm of IT, it is indeed good to take action for good purpose. But it is very important to do your homework. Keeping worm not as easy as it sound like, if you overfed the worm, you will find them overran you fruit fly maggots. And there is no hard and fast rules for breeding worms.

I am encouraging agriculture for the purpose of better quality and more rewarding life. Remember not too spend too much time in beating up dungeon monsters leveling all day once you decide to start any business, expect yourself to work 2x harder when running your own business.

I'm from Tawau and i also dont know the cocoa is so good there.

Hmmm.... Tawau cocoa is regarded the best in the Asian region lei.. i terms of production, it is ranked 3 after Cote d'Ivore and Ghana.

Maybe the reason why many Malaysians dont know the quality of Tawau cocoa is because it is largely used in high grade stuff, especially the cocoa butter.

Fyi, Hoko is made in Tawau, and I think its quite good.

Just that they are more focusing in export market rather then doing much in local market. This is reasonable because Tawau has a low demand due to low population compare to city.

And hence thats why the cocoa estate company in Tawau is making billions.

We have plenty of world class products here in Malaysia, another example is in Sibu, Shell has a first in the world and once the largest in the world(now should be replaced by some middle east country) natural gas processing plant that produce liquid fuel with natural gas(GTL).

Not like some high profile white elephants, the best things work quietly in the background.

Yes, hence why I said it is used in high grade stuff. But Hoko utilizes the more average cocoa lei... and yet it is still quite good. So imagine what they are exporting la...

Hmm... I don't agree with the point that because Tawau is not highly populated there is no high demand. Almost everyone has drunk one form of chocolate drink, be it Milo, Ovaltine, or Vico etc. Furthermore, the most money making component of cocoa is not cocoa solids, but cocoa butter. This is the stuff that goes into cosmetics, lipsticks, glycerine, industrial wax etc.

Yes, their main focus is export market, but who wouldn't export their high grade stuff given the premium prices they are getting? If sell to local area (meaning within Tawau, not even rest of Malaysia), I feel the plantation will surely wither and die. Even other plantations also same, they sell out, not sell within. Only small percentage is sell within. That's about the only way to get high returns; most Malaysians prefer quantity over quality, although this is slowly changing. Hence, would they be willing to pay a premium for premium stuff? The younger generation of Malaysians would, but the older generation generally wouldn't. That's why now Teck Guan Plantations (Hoko brand owner) is starting to market within Malaysia as well.

Hahaaa.... white elephant.... That's correct, a lot of good things generally run silently behind the scenes....

Hoko is by Teck Guan. My uncle is the CEO there. =.=

Hmm? Correct lar, Teck Guan owns the Hoko brand... Did I type wrongly? *Puzzled*

Your uncle is CEO there? That's very good then. Maybe you could brief us more about the cocoa scene in Tawau? As far as I know, MCB is promoting plantings in East Malaysia quite intensely.

I don't know much about other cocoa plantations around the Tawau region, but Teck Guan Plantations gave me a very good impression, and I was quite impressed with their plantings and products.

Haha... Next time if want to visit the cocoa village, can arrange through you mah?

Of course doing own business one have to work 2x harder. The reason why i mentioned about the online gaming thingy is just another way to say that people like me being an IT person has time to myself. If i manage to breed worms..at the same time I still have time to update myself with IT..as you know technology always evolve and people like us can't stop updating ourselves. I just want to sustain myself in the current situation where they might be people like me who is less fortunate and can't make it in the IT world whereby we are graduated in IT skool. At least we still can earn our own money, no doubt its from agro. The reality is, when it comes to the end of the month, we will always look at our pay slip. Its either we say "f**k! i'm not earning enuff to sustain my life" or "f**k not enuff to spend leh" so bottom line is need to earn enuf to fill up stomach, car petrol, house rent/instalment, bills and also wife/gf/ siblings. Why should we waste the opportunity to make money when the demand is there right? At the same time we still can pick up bits and pieces on IT and who knows, after we earn enough we still can pursue our dream in IT industry. I'm just saying my mind out. sorry if i hurt anyones feelings.

end of the day people will always ask "how much are you earning?" back in kampung..u think they care whether you design network structure for putrajaya city or write a sophisticated software for a big company? It doesn't mean I want to save my face. Its true when they ask about our earnings. If we earn enough, we can sustain our life. If not, we are f**ked. haha..they won't take our money one la..they just want to know that their future generation can live on another decade to see the world evolve. They are more then happy if they know that we secure our own future.

Again, I'm just writing my opinion out. I feel very happy that I found this forum with everyone tat is interested in agro. Lets make it happen and get through this hard times.

Cant really help you much. Am curently in KL studying.

Your thought and feeling make a real sense. It is indeed true that being able to earn enough is the real meat of surviving in this cruel world. People dont give a damn at how smart you able to design a network system, or how well you understand OOP in programming. Your value is represented by a set of numbers.

By working for others
- your work is your responsibility, nobody appreciate anything.
- your boss/company/stupid top management decide how much you will be earning.
- you depended on your pity salary, no matter how high is it.
- the company will try to get rid of you once they think you are not productive enough.
- no matter how you whine for low pay or high fuel cost, your boss will not give you a damn.

By venturing in agribusiness
- you start taking charge of your life, including all the risk, potential, meeting national demand and contribute directly to economy.
- it is up to you to decide and plan how much you want to expand and earn.
- you can plan out your crops to control when and how much you earn.
- you can work until 110 years old and you modernize you farm by buying tractors.
- as a raw material producer, you gain more from rising cost...

These are IMHO, but I seriously thought that by getting salary from your company, is nearly as good as getting pocket money under the care of your parent.

I got the latest information on breeding worms..I hope putting a website link in here is not and offense. Please check this website out. This is one of the pros.

http://www.azragrocentre.com/azr2/news.php

so anyone had started their worm breeding farm?mind to show some pics?hehe

Bro jcvstlys, it's ok lar.. Just means the junior plant breeder's union would have to write in only... Haha..

This post has been edited by kianwei8: Apr 20 2008, 02:43 PM

Nice.. You bought 1kilo of worms?