Orchid Farming?

[hiorchids]

Aloha! This is my first post to Punaweb - been reading for awhile and have found a lot of good information. My partner and I are considering a move to Puna in the next couple years and are interested in orchid farming, or possibly vanilla farming. I've been doing a lot of research on the web, but there is not much in the way of "industry information" related to these two topics (or at least, specific to Hawaii). Can anyone provide any direction to someone looking to learn more about the business of orchids on the Big Island? Seems like there are a number of growers, but I'm wondering if it's possile to actually making a living doing this, especially given the increase in imports from Asia, which seem to be putting pressure on Hawaiian farms. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Mahalo! []