Mutant orchids are now as numerous as vegetables in the market
Discuss with PV. VietNamNet, Mr. H. – a famous mutant orchid player in Hanoi, admitted that he and a group of friends once spent tens of billions of dong to buy mutant orchids for propagation. In particular, his group spent more than 20 billion to buy a pot of mutant orchids with 2 stems (60cm each stem).
This pot of orchids was then propagated and sold by him and everyone else. Last year, his association decided to transfer orchid pots for less than 1 billion VND.
According to orchid hobbyists, in the past mutant orchids were extremely expensive because they were unique and rare. Now, there are as many goods as vegetables, so it’s difficult for prices to spike again.
According to Mr. H., the previous mutant orchids were super expensive because they were rare and the seed source was not yet available. There may be only one pot in the whole market. With less supply and more demand, prices are pushed up, creating virtual fevers.
However, mutant orchids are quite easy to propagate. Gardeners only need to cut the kie and they can multiply into baby orchids in just a short time. When supply on the market is abundant, prices will cool down. This is also the reason mutant orchids are becoming cheaper and cheaper.
“About the past 3 years, billion-dollar orchid transactions have almost frozen. Mutant orchids cost only a few hundred to a few million dong,” Mr. H. said. Therefore, he warns people not to rush to buy mutant orchids with money. Any investment requires a thorough understanding of the market and must be consistent with economic conditions. Avoid investing according to the trend, pouring billions of money to suddenly buy orchids and then not knowing where to sell them.
Prof. Dr. Le Huy Ham, former Director of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics (Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences), once shared that mutant orchids are not something too rare but only have strange elements.
According to him, mutant orchids only really bring economic value when mass-breeding for industrial production to have large sales like Phalaenopsis orchids, gradually forming the orchid industry.
“We can completely propagate orchids using In Vitro technology. Vietnam’s tissue culture laboratories can completely do it if they have an order,” Mr. Ham affirmed to reporters. VietNamNet.
With the In Vitro propagation method (in vitro propagation), scientists have long proven that it does not change the characteristics of the seedlings compared to the original mother plant. Therefore, from a branch or tissue of a mutant mother philodendron orchid, tens of thousands of seedlings can be multiplied, keeping the characteristics of the mother plant completely intact.
Sharing about mass breeding technology, Associate Professor, PhD. Duong Hoa Xo – Director of Ho Chi Minh City Biotechnology Center, also admitted: “In terms of plant tissue culture technology, we can mass propagate tissue culture at a very cheap price.” .
Accordingly, if 1 mutant orchid is propagated using this method, it will produce thousands, even 100,000 orchids in just a short time.
From there, it can be seen that the unique and rare value that the garden owner “deified” to sell for billions of dollars, causing price fever again, will no longer exist when mutant orchids can be easily propagated. According to market principles, when supply exceeds demand, prices will become increasingly cheaper.