The type of orchard for investment

[Alexandoy]

This is an investment fiasco that I want to share for a lesson. In the last years of the old millennium there was the hype on the mango orchard. The market price of the mango is 150 pesos per kilo which is attractive to farmers. In the province of Zambales many farms have been converted into mango orchards. It takes 4 years for the seedlings to bear fruit but the land owners say they can easily recover the lost income.

On the first year of harvest the market price of mango was even higher so the orchard owners were jubilant. But on the 2nd fruiting season the bad news is that the price of mango dropped to 20 pesos per kilo. To think that the cost of labor for harvesting is 20 pesos per kilo the orchard owners had no choice but to let the mangoes drop from the tree and be fodder for the compost bin.

 

[Mika]

Do you know why the price of mangoes dropped? I have been told that a lot of businesses are only interested in selling seedlings. They tell the farmers that the crop is high selling and is in demand. They even tell that they will buy the produce. However, during the harvest, they simply vanish, they do not buy the produce.