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Article in the Wall Street Journal

W

wordwiz

A reader sent me the pages - I don't get the WSJ. It talks about the Bhut Jolokia and other peppers. The article is here: http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120191360681137059.html Towards the end of it, it states the Saikais expect their company to ship 25 tons of dried chilies. That's 50,000 pounds. I weighed a baggie of dried habs I have (about 40 decent size pods) and it weighed .7 ounces. So that would mean it would take more than 900 pods to make a pound. 900 x 50,000 = 45 million Bhut Jolokia pods.

1) They have a huge growing area or
2) They are growing pods much bigger than halapenos or
3) They are not drying the peppers near as much as I do or
4) The Indians' scales are whacked or
5) All of the above.

Mike
 
Just read it, great article Bhut Jolokia going main stream in The Wall Street Journal! Glad I've got a bhut seedling looking really good hope to have beautiful pods this summer.:mouthonfire:
 
That may explain why plants shunned by starving animals end up in party bowls next to the chips. "We're about the only species who like hot peppers," he says. "You can't even train a rat to like them."

God I love chilis more everyday!
 
thats alot for 1 year, wow. but they're just cashing in on the market for these chiles, alot of people want them & if they can produce alot then they'll be rich.
 
Actually 25 tons is not a lot.
I know for a fact, because I know people who are growing paprika and sell it dry.
The price is per ton, and we're talking about a lot of paprika.
So I would guess that 25 is relatively a large amount for Bhut Jolokia, but not like you say it.
 
I agree with Omri. That's only about 2 ocean freight containers. But I would be willing to bet, it'll be at least 10 times more next year. Provided it can be grown that fast.
 
Omri said:
Actually 25 tons is not a lot.
I know for a fact, because I know people who are growing paprika and sell it dry.
The price is per ton, and we're talking about a lot of paprika.
So I would guess that 25 is relatively a large amount for Bhut Jolokia, but not like you say it.
Click to expand...

So how many pods do you calculate it takes to make 25 tons of dried peppers?

Mike
 
Omri said:
Actually 25 tons is not a lot.
I know for a fact, because I know people who are growing paprika and sell it dry.
The price is per ton, and we're talking about a lot of paprika.
So I would guess that 25 is relatively a large amount for Bhut Jolokia, but not like you say it.
Click to expand...



really 25 tons is not alot, compared to a 1000 tons maybe but 25 tons aint just throw it over your shoulder kind of weight ;)

we are talking about bhut's which is kinda more rare than chiles used for paprika, so of course there wouldnt be as many. as for selling only by the ton I dont think people will be selling bhut's by the ton just for the simple fact theres not alot of them. look at pictures of markets where they sell chiles they're in huge bags but I highly doubt that bag full of chiles weigh 1 ton I bet more along the lines of 50-100 pounds which I'd think those people would be selling their bhut's to other marketers by the hundreds or 500 pound weights not by the ton.

wordwiz - I always thought 1 ton was 2,200 pounds, so I looked it up & we were both right :) I didnt know there was 2 different weights for 1 ton (short,long)
I recieved 66 bhut pods in 2 oz x 8 (16 oz in 1 pound) = 528 pods in 1 pound
528 x 50,000 = 26,400,000 pods in 25 short tons
528 x 56,000 = 29,568,000 pods in 25 long tons

so either way you look at it omri thats alot of pods! & right now these pods are famous, people want them & the growers know this so they've jacked up their prices to cash in on this craze.
& people are willing to pay these price to taste these insane hot chiles.
 
Look, I'm not saying it's a small amount.
People will not buy it by the ton, it's more for spice companies and what not... but growing 25 tons is not that hard.
Of course the prices are not even close to the Bhut Jolokia ones.
Usually a spice company buys it from the farmer, process it, packs it and sells it to stores in a low price so they could have a reasonable profit.
We all know that buying paprika at the local store is not expensive, so just think how cheap the farmer sells it.
25 tons of paprika is not a lot of money. 25 tons of Bhut Jolokia is a lot of money, but it doesn't make it hard to grow.
My comment of course was for:
Saikais expect their company to ship 25 tons of dried chilies. That's 50,000 pounds. I weighed a baggie of dried habs I have (about 40 decent size pods) and it weighed .7 ounces. So that would mean it would take more than 900 pods to make a pound. 900 x 50,000 = 45 million Bhut Jolokia pods.

1) They have a huge growing area or
2) They are growing pods much bigger than halapenos or
3) They are not drying the peppers near as much as I do or
4) The Indians' scales are whacked or
5) All of the above.
Click to expand...
 
farming is one of the closest markets to perfect competition meaning in the long run farmers won't make economic profit, just accounting profits. the bhut jolokia market is in short run equilibrium right now so they're gaining more then a reasonable rate of return, they can easily grow more but they maximize profits growing less. people will join the market in time and in the long run it'll be grown just like paprika is. i have a midterm tomorrow...
 
wordwiz said:
A question for those who have grown these, how many ripe (not dried) Jolokias does it take to make a pound?

Mike
Click to expand...

Don't know but I hope to after this summer....got 5 in the cooker now...
 
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