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?

wah kianwei8..where u buy the baby worm? how much ar?

omg , i want some worms too , mind to share where u get it ?

paiseh ,other ppl d, my one soon

Anyone got experience in opening a mushroom farm? Mind to share?

hmm...mushroom? organic ones? I heard that mushroom will eat up loads of ur time

---

Added on April 22, 2008, 8:16 amcan u ask that someone how much he buy? can i buy from him the baby worm? plsssssssssssSSSSS?

This post has been edited by utaikamah: Apr 22 2008, 08:16 AM

Nar Rexis, parents will bite their fingers and still give you the best when time's tough;
Your employer .... hohoho, will say Merry X'mas and Byebye to you.

On the part where you commented that everyone only looks at the numbers.

Hmm, well, most people are superficial, you can never please them alone by numbers.
Too little < they look down on you
Too much > they jealous and think you're a stuck up or they rush to suck your thumb

I always believe the desire for money can only go this far, but the desire to provide society's need is the more likely reason that fuel an endless cycle of innovation and wealth.

No i dont have experience in mushroom farm, I am more like experienced with eating them

However, growing mushroom is surprisingly easy. In the early days, a mushroom grower start up from his backyard and now operating a mushroom factory which chunk out tons of mushroom weekly. Theres also another example that a women who operated a mushroom factory(aka mushroom hut) and gain considerable success, with business volumes worth millions annually. These are the success stories.

The ingredients to grow mushroom
- growing material
- mushroom mycelium
- plastic bag
- pressure cooker
Fill plastic bags with growing material, disinfect the stuff in the pressure cooker, and then apply mycelium and keep it in a dark and cool warehouse and wait for mushroom. Of course, there are details like housekeeping, extend harvesting period, etc.

Typical return from a bag of growing material is about 200-300 grams of mushroom over 4 months, but another mushroom grower is reported being able to gather up to 1kg of mushroom over 6 months with better growing material and mushroom hut moisture and temperature control.

Wholesale price of oyster mushroom is about RM5.50-6.00, and supermarket sell them for about RMm8.00.

-

Growing Material

They mainly consist of agricultural, timber, forestry waste products, such as saw dust, rice straw, rice bran, etc. In a typical oyster mushroom growing bag, there are about 90% of saw dust and 10% of rice bran, different origin of waste material contain different nutrition value(for mushroom)and could yield different result, some might work better then the other. I have read about a mushroom grower try mix corn flour in the bag and yield a slightly different taste mushroom.

Do note that since mushroom quality is directly influenced by the growing material, therefore any chemical, heavy metal residue on the planting material will directly pollute your mushroom.

You can either choose to mix your own growing material as well as bag, sterilize, plant the mushroom yourself, which required a large pressure cooker for this purpose as well as large mixer machine to stir up the materials. Its a lot of work and required plenty of capital.

Or you can purchase a sterilized mushroom bag from a mushroom grower/factory. All you need is a ventilated room with water sprayer fans to keep them.

Mycelium

Mycelium is the true body of mushroom, something like a root of a plant, but its not a root. You can choose to purchase mycelium of certain mushroom(oyster, straw, wood ear, ganoderma, etc)

It is possible to breed mycelium yourself but you required a lab to do so. Its tough to isolate a pure mycelium without being contaminated by wild fungus.

Plastic bags and pressure cooker

Plastic bags as well as a special cap(or simply a ring to hold an opening on the bag is being used to hold the planting material, while pressure cooker is important for wiping out all the rest of the alien spores and fungus so that nothing else will disturb your mushroom.

PS: dedicated discussion thread here

This post has been edited by rexis: Apr 22 2008, 05:39 PM

Thanks for the write up rexis. very detail. Anyway, anyone know where to take the course for this? Have been looking and all is located in pahang or kedah for the course. M hoping to get somewhere nearer since m still studying.

jcvstlys, the guide is quite brief, there are more details about what nutrient can be used for increase production, humidity and temperature control, how to clone and breed new breed, etc etc etc. The magazine Today Agriculture sometimes organize mushroom training course but its been more then 2 months since I read the magazine - not sure are they still operating. I know there is one mushroom farm that sometimes organize training course for whoever interested. And I am quite sure that whoever selling any mushroom substrate to you are willing to guide you as well.

Or since the method is pretty straight forward, you can choose to learn the details by doing it I personally hv tried purchased some oyster mushroom from hypermarket and successfully(pure white silky thread) isolated some mycelium on a glass of jelly, all according to the guides found in the internet. Never planted the mycelium on any substrate thou, my apartment really too small for a mushroom hut.

Should you need any mushroom contacts, I can try dig dig my library.