BELIZE NEEDS ORCHID EXPORT ENTREPRENEUR. WE GROW THEM EASILY.

ORCHID EXPORTS - WHAT HAPPENED?

The Taiwanese have brought in an expert on growing orchids. He is doing tremendously. The ORCHIDS are propogated by Mr. Frank Lin from TAIWAN for the Taiwanese Mission here and Central Farm.
Despite all the hoopla about University of Belize, or Galen University, no young student apparently wants to turn entrepreneur and get rich. Belize is located easily to export to Texas or Florida. The first by road and the second by ship.
Mr. Lin has a climate controlled air conditioned greenhouse to grow his orchids. Normally a low budget grower would start in the lowlands and then take his orchids up to the highest Mountain Pine Ridge for cooler air, to help them bloom. That is the cheap way.
The USA Market is wide open to this opportunity. The country seems to have no marketing trained experts who want to go into the business? Taiwan exports $30 million worth to the Western USA states. $30 million goes to the European Union and ships $15 million to Japan.
Something in this equation is missing. The EXPORT entrepreneur with a ready made business, turn key, just waiting for a bright spark with gumption. The science is now old hat in Belize, but the ambition and drive is missing somehow?
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To the comment sent to me, that the problem is MONEY and RISK involved! Agreed!
The government who wants this development and over a 1000 cane farmers in trouble could and should be growing and shipping orchids, are not. Even though the whole thing is feasabile. I don´t know if the Development Finance Corporation is in the product of capitalizing startups? They certainly are not interterpreting their mission goal that way. There is a total concentration by ALL government efforts based only on LOANS. That is ridiculous. We are losing our potential entrepreneur startups this way, basing a policy of growth and development through loans. Why don´t they concentrate on business plans, including the market and buyer, and empower the DFC to buy shares in experimental startups? They are going about development the WRONG WAY in BELMOPAN. This is what is called TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT and the clowns in BELMOPAN don´t understand you have to change the paradigm.
These young people should be able to form a limited liability company based on a development BUSINESS PLAN and if they have a BUYER and a MARKET, then the first shipments for export in which you discover the problems with shipping and collecting your money, should be part of the expense of the learning process. They should be able to SELL SHARES to the DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION, not borrow money. The RISK is too high otherwise. We have two INDUSTRIES capable of taking off, making exports, the research on TILAPIA is now being done by CENTRAL FARM as to the economic feasability studies for TILAPIA and the exporting of FISH FINGERS. The second industry is the ORCHID production for both European and USA markets. There are a lot of problems to be solved yet in that industry potential. Boxing, packaging and freight and customs red tape in the USA. Collecting your money too. These are best done by RISK CAPITAL and it behooves the government to at least finance by buying SHARES in the first start up, until it is successful and then everybody else can copy, or use loans, or whatever. First you have to get over the development RISK and LEARNING hump. I´ve been there and done that. It is difficult and there are a number of failures before you make it and learn the tricks and ropes. Instead of blowing $10 million on cane farmers who will not help themselves, this money could be earmarked for the DFC and start up RISK CAPITAL speculation in NEW potential industries, to buy shares in the first Limited Liability Company. We have to bootstrap new industries and that is in the Govenment´s self interest to do so.