Bio-tech orchid: wealth creation and entrepreneurial development

Their unique shapes and colors ,their exotic and inaccessible habitat in the tropical forests and mountains had made orchids the darlings of wealthy collectors of Victorian era.They were insistently hunted by collectors across the globe who gave their lives in pursuit of every rare varieties that even today can easily fetched thousands of dollars.In recent years, floriculture, specifically orchid has emerged as a profitable agribusiness option the world over, particularly in the developing nations. These days commercial orchid business commands a staggering US 2 billion value annually and its still growing. In Thailand for example, the past 40 years, ever since 1965, the industry has been developing its orchid breeding incessantly and rapidly.The value of its orchid export rose from merely 80,000 US dollars during the early years to 100 million US dollars today. Malaysia is currently the 2nd biggest cut orchid exporter in the world after Thailand.In 2003, Malaysia exported RM113 million worth of cut orchids to Singapore. Other big export markets were Japan (RM410,000), Australia (RM290,000)and the Netherlands(RM180,000). In 2005, the Malaysia cut orchids exports stood at RM36 million with Johor contributing nearly 90% of the output. Presently ,Taiwan, Singapore ,Hawaii and South Americas are fast becoming cut orchid producers. Taiwan and Thailand are also into exporting orchid in pots and it has since become more significant. Compare to the traditional method (exporting orchid plant minus the medium), they now not only can export bigger plant, took lesser time to mature but also fetched better prices. Given the emphasis of developing the floriculture industry for export as envisaged in the third National Agriculture Policy, this paper discusses details and strategies in which the industry and Malaysian government can partake in order to claim a bigger portion of the lucrative international orchid market. There is indeed a tremendous growth potential for local orchid industry given the innovative model and the modus operandi on how to operate and execute the whole business cycle of the enterprise as presented in this paper. The tripartite production and marketing arrangement initiatives would benefit the newly created entrepreneurs,the private sector and the government as well as promoting wealth creation as in the national agenda.