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South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Thailand's ‘supercars of rare plants' fuel a new green gold rush
Bright, heart-shaped anthuriums spilled onto the walkways, as collectors expertly examined the intricate patterns of philodendrons, pausing for a moment to admire the rows of rare ferns that erupted in every imaginable shade of green between the bustling booths. At June's annual Bangkok International Exotic Plants Show, horticulturists revealed some of the secrets behind their 'green gold' rush to This Week in Asia – a trade made possible by Thailand 's hothouse climate, rich soils and green-fingered ingenuity. The Southeast Asian kingdom has cultivated a reputation as one of the world's foremost hubs for rare plant breeding, a botanical bounty now valued in the tens of millions of US dollars and growing larger with every passing year. 'These are the supercars of rare plants,' said Sappasiri Chaovanich, organiser of the trade fair where rare blooms and floral displays draw enthusiasts from across the globe. Sappasiri Chaovanich at last year's Bangkok International Exotic Plants Show. Photo: Bangkok International Exotic Plants Show Here, collectors are willing to pay up to US$300 for a single small plant, while mature specimens, distinguished by their rarity, colours and singular patterns, can command prices as high as US$30,000. Most are destined for export, to be nurtured in breeding nurseries overseas. 'Our whole country is a greenhouse and plant breeding is in our genes – it's a kind of living art, not just a business,' said Sappasiri, a lifelong plant lover.
South China Morning Post
04-08-2025
- South China Morning Post
Inside the Philippines' online gambling epidemic: ‘it's worse than Pogos'
In the dim glow of his bedroom, Clark* used to spend up to 18 hours a day gambling, his world distilled to the spinning reels and flashing lights of online betting apps. What began as casual wagers – just a few hundred pesos here, a thousand there – quickly escalated. One day, Clark placed a 7,000-peso (US$120) bet that, in a dizzying stroke of fortune, ballooned into 1.7 million pesos (US$30,000). With that huge win, he thought his luck had changed. Instead, it marked the beginning of a spiralling addiction that highlights the urgent, unaddressed crisis of online gambling gripping the Philippines Clark, who is employed in the business process outsourcing sector and works remotely, found himself betting between tasks. 'My productivity really suffered. I only took breaks just to eat or sleep,' he told This Week in Asia. Clark's relationship with gambling began early, with bets on off-track horse racing as a teenager. Physical casinos came next, but the thrill soon gave way to paranoia: he feared being watched and marked as a high-roller. 'Although I wanted to go back, I was getting paranoid that they were monitoring me through the cameras and knew that I was a big spender. That's why I transitioned to gambling online,' he said.
