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Hmmm!
I’m no expert but this is a small farm so it would be more pocket money than a significant income kimball don’t you think? Having said that, good OJ here is not cheap.
How many trees do you need? How many trees per acre can you have? How much juice do you get out of an orange anyway? How many times per year? Are these particular oranges more valuable? Do they produce more juice?
I would think it’s the same as most coffee farms that people buy, it’s more of a hobby or a “gentleman farmer” concept than a business although some hobbies can keep you pretty darned busy.
Anybody else know anything about orange farms?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comGood answer, Scott.
When you can purchase at a local ferria a bag of a dozen or more oranges for 1,000 col, it says you won’t make much money. Especially, since it is seasonal. Selling locally you are direct competition with your neighbor. You would also need to be within a reasonable distance to a bottling company to sell for commercial juice, depending on the species of oranges grown.
At least it is a lot easier/simpler to juice the oranges yourself and enjoy it than it is to collect/dry/roast coffee beans.* To purchase a property of this size, with the intention to build a residence away from the river, for the size alone would seem a good deal as long as you didn’t expect or need rely on the income. The cost of labor to look after the fruit trees, would eat up any profit.
Edited on Oct 22, 2009 10:22
We had a ‘coffee farm’ and it covered costs, eventually, after a lot of hard work. We are now on a large farm and grow many different varieties of fruit and experimenting with more unusual ones, none commercially though, at this point in time.
If you buy it, maybe Victor can send me a commission. LOLScott:
Steve Riley showed us an orange farm in Orosi, on the river edge that was five acres when I was on George’s tour last year in May. It had a nice house, a caretaker who took care of the oranges, along with a house for the man that was employed. I understood the figures were, I didn’t see the books, that the oranges went to a coop for processing and after paying the caretaker, the current owner was netting about $1000 a month.
I don’t much more about the details, or even if the figures were true or not, but it seemed an reasonable explanation at the time. I think the most successful farms maybe be selling their product to coops. I know Portland Roasting, here in Portland, Oregon, has formed a growers coop in Costa Rica. I buy their coffee when I my favorite stash I bring home is gone. They have done a lot for the neighborhood where they are getting their beans according to their website.
Here is a side question, I just found out on my last trip in September that I have at least three if not more banana trees on my place. Is it true that one banana tree can produce 200 pounds of bananas in a growing season?? I only have two squirrels on my property, I may have to employ more or I will be eating a lot on banana bread!
Thanks,
Tom in Portland, OregonBananas plants are actually herbs, not trees! And, depending on the species, the one ‘hand’ could possibly weigh 200lb. Then that plant dies….
Good news, is that it will have a youngster to take over, growing alongside it.
There should be three plants per ‘planting’, grandmother, mother and daughter…
If there are more than that, the small daughters, should be transplanted, elsewhere. Some ‘daughters’ are no good though and these are called ‘water babies’.They grow like weeds though, so you probably have more than three….
Tom, you’re saying that, after all the costs of labor and providing housing for the maintenance man, this orange farm is returning a net of $200 per acre every month of the year? That sounds very optimistic. If that were consistently true across the country, one would wonder why anybody would plant coffee.
We have naturally occurring oranges in our neighborhood, so I know they’ll grow in this environment. I wonder why our neighbors haven’t caught on.
I think I’d like to see the books.
Like you, David, I don’t believe what Tom was told. And as Tom posted, he wasn’t really concerned about the info.
We had contact with Del Oro, Guanacaste, one of the largest producers of OJ in Central America regarding our participation with them, as they have many ‘fincas’ under contract around the area. For one thing, the oranges wouldn’t be producing in the same area, every month, which is why they purchase from other areas of the country.
And what they paid, was minimal, especially considering the initial output. I can’t remember the exact figures, but it wasn’t worth us participating with them. We just grow and enjoy 3 varieties for our own benefit.We have 20 or so banana plants on our property. Nothing commerical. Just for our own enjoyment and to cook with in the house or make icecream with, like all our mango, guanabana, avacado etc etc. When they are almost ripe enough the weight of the hand usually breaks over and so you hack off the raceme/hand and hang it somewhere out of the rain, with an old shirt wrapped around them if you want to keep the birds and bugs off them. Eat them as they mature or give them away, its a 20 minute job. I just cut down some half an hour ago, there are approx 120 bananas on the raceme and they are hanging in my garage. What we don’t eat or give away we will toss to the cows and horses (yes, my horses LOVE bananas but don’t eat carrots or apples. Tico horses!)
Sometimes we cut a hand off the raceme and hang it out for the birds which makes it easy to bird watch! Then as Costaricafinca says, that stem dies away and one of the root clones will start the cycle over. I would guess your squirrels probably planted them for their own enjoyment, but they are never going to be much work and certainly unless you had upwards of 50 plants and were attempting to sell commerically you couldn’t justify hiring another squirrel.Alexgil, I see in your last posting that you mention avacados. We have been trying to find out what are in Costa Rica would have the right climate to grow avacados successfully. Could you tell me what area you have your avacaods in? And do you get a fairly decent crop of fruit. We do not want to grow commercially, just for our own use.
Thanks::)Orotina is one of the best places for growing Avocados, but many folk grow them in their gardens. Mostly grown throughout Costa Rica are [i]’Aguacate criollos'[/i][b][/b] which is a much larger/cheaper avocado. Once used to the texture/flavor you’ll like it. Hass avocados that you se at the markets are usually imported from Mexico, although you can buy the grafted trees here. All varieties are best protected from the wind and like a warm climate.
Thanks for the info. So I assume that the hotter drier beach areas would not be suitable for growning avacados. A higher elevation away from the ocean seems more likely.
Hotter is OK, but the humidity could be a problem. We grow avocados in the interior of Guanacaste, where the temps. are in the 80-90F range, most of the time.
Have you visited [ http://www.avocadosource.com/ ]?
They have an enormous amount of information about these little beauties…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com
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