MANILA, Philippines -- In agribusiness, you have to be fast in spotting money-making opportunities. In good times and in bad, there are always money-making opportunities for the enterprising.

When the going is bad because of a slack in demand for one particular product, one can always switch to something that has a better potential. After all, there will always be demand for things that are needed by the fast-growing population. There are niche markets that are waiting to be filled.

Right now, there is an intense interest in the growing of oil palm and rubber trees. That’s because palm oil and natural rubber are in short supply worldwide, hence the good prices of these commodities in the market.

So what are the opportunities available? One of them is the production of planting materials – seedlings. Production of planting materials offers an excellent opportunity to cash in on the strong demand for planting materials.

But there is a big BUT. One has to produce the right varieties so that the farmers who will plant them will succeed in producing the right yields of the right quality. Quality is the word.

In the case of oil palm, hybrid seeds are used for multiplying the plant. The seeds have to be obtained from reliable seed companies, such as the established ones in Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica. Producing seedlings for sale can be profitable although it requires quite a big capital to engage in it. That’s because the hybrid seeds cost about a dollar each, landed in the Philippines.

But the returns could be substantial. If one is knowledgeable in producing the seedlings, the profit margin is significant. The one-dollar seed can be sold as a seedling for P180 to P220 each after growing it for nine months or thereabouts.

Budded rubber tree seedlings are cheaper but then the cost of seeds is also much cheaper. Seeds could be obtained locally at a very cheap price. What is needed is a budwood source of high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties.

Somebody we know who used to produce grafted fruit tree planting materials has switched to the mass production of oil palm seedlings and budded rubber plants. That’s because the market is so much bigger than that of fruit trees such as durian or rambutan. That’s one smart move, if you ask us. Log on to zacsarian.blogspot.com.