Ok where to start….. as always you just never know,year on Year,quite what you will be able to find,this year it seems it was more difficult that previous years , and although what we did manage to purchase we are very happy indeed with,it was just the lack of numbers available,it certainly appears things are moving on earlier and earlier and perhaps from now on we have to be in Japan much earlier,
In years gone by,most breeders we visited never used to start releasing their Tosai until end of Feb/early March, we then noticed many overseas buyers were going before this, so duley we moved our buying trip forward by a few weeks,which in fairness has been working very well,but now the breeders have really stepped up their growing and when you visit in November you are already seeing Tosai at 25+cm which was totally unheard off, previously they would be in the region still of 12-15cm,
The problem now is with all the increased demand from parts of Asia,and the sheer buying power these dealers and countries have this is now filtering down what’s left when we go as they literally can and want to purchase Koi all year round,that coupled with the massive increase in some breeders who are now holding back so many tosai for their auctions it’s definitely getting harder and harder along with prices steadily going up.
That said as i alluded above we are super happy with what we did purchase and will have some fabulous quality koi,the Showa we got from Ogata and Ueno are superb,the Shiro Utsuri Ki Kisui from Okawa again next level……..
Our buying is not complete yet we are still looking and will like last year be hopefully getting some from other breeders and from their Tateshita so watch this space……..
So we will be looking at changing things up going forward to ensure we keep bringing you the quality koi.
