I'm in the US, in Vermont. There's only really two of us in the entire state that I know of who are seriously into discus, the other is a moderator at Simplydiscus.com Its hard enough to start a fish club here let alone a discus one. The fish are far from endangered, in their wild habitats they are extremely prolific with a population doubling time of around 18months.
The expense comes in with grading, the number of the quality fish you get out of a spawn, and simply the effort it takes to get a good parent pair, spawn and raise the fry, then sell them. Its not uncommon for good breeders to cull 1/2 of a spawn because of minor issues,just because they don't like giving out anything other than top notch stock.