CONTENTS What if… 8 30 8


12 16 18 26 30 34 39 40


Smokey Mould: the smoke screen lifts The 7th IMMC in Beijing Poland: still expanding Getting reaquainted with Amycel Poland Meanwhile, in Iran New chairman at the BDC Multi-storey growing in Malta My Farm: Komar (PL) Business and pleasure in Cairns


And....


Cultivation tips AdVisie News


ISMS News Focus


6, 19 4, 19 19 22


Cultivation tips DLV Plant Mushrooms 37 Service


42


Cover foto: Smokey Mould (Penicillium hermansii). Growth on nutrient medium and small parti- cles of straw and microscopic images ot this stealthy competitor mould (see article page 8). Photo: Con Hermans, AdVisie


Roel Dreve Tel. +31 (0)6 23617575 roel@mushroombusiness.com www.mushroombusiness.nl


16 39


I’ve just fi nished reading ‘What If ?’, a collection of coun- terfactual essays dealing with (military) turning points that dramatically changed the course of history. What if Athens had lost Salamis, what if Hitler had been shot in the First World War, what if the Japanese had had just fi ve more mi- nutes to launch their planes again at Midway? It’s intriguing to speculate how easily and how totally differently things sometimes would have turned out, especially as we take the actual outcome for granted.


The mushroom industry has also had its share of turning points in the last fi fty years. What would the industry be gro- wing without the U1? How would the sector have evolved in Europe without people like Bels or Thielen or Szudyga? Where would Polish mushroom producers stand if D-Day had been a failure in June 1944, or if the Berlin Wall had not fallen? Instead it did, and Poland joined the EU in 2004. A triumphal march to the top of the list of world mushroom producers began, fuelled by ambition and a will to learn. Poland’s geographical position, which for thousands of years was a negative factor - sandwiched between giant and ‘very unfriendly ’ powers of Europe - was, in mushroom trade terms, suddenly a huge advantage.


The expansion of the Polish mushroom industry is still in full swing, as was evident at the latest edition of Pieczarkalia in Siedlce. Illustrative of that fact was Dr Szudyga’s remark in his speech that Polish growers in the Łosice region produce the same amount of mushrooms as the entire Spanish mushroom industry all together. Production wise, the Polish sector has arrived at a point that Irish, English and Dutch producers keep a keen eye on the Zloty exchange rate and hope for continued, easy Polish access to the growing Russian market. The effi ciency of cultivation and the quality of the product is levelling out around Europe; Dutch style cultivation techniques, solid equipment and phase III compost are now used all across the continent. And visiting the multitude of conferences, workshops and trade shows this autumn, it is evident that European growers have the same things on their minds: how to improve hygiene, how to save on energy costs, how to achieve better prices, how to raise public awareness of their mushrooms .


As we have seen, these challenges are mainly tackled, and sometimes unfortunately (the failure to promote mushrooms Europe-wide) - on a national level, although there seems to be a tendency apparent of conducting and sharing research (MushTV, ISMS).


There is no sweeping revolution on the horizon in mushroom land; trends merely continue and the status quo is taken for granted.


But what if a consumer dies tomorrow because of a harmful substance in a single can of mushrooms and the media goes mad (need I mention the cucumber scandal..)? What if the Russian border closes because Putin has a sudden problem with Polish politics? What if some day the Dutch fi nd a way to produce Agaricus without compost? With everyone riding the waves of the free market and fewer collective institutions in place to pro-actively protect com- panies, or the industry as a whole, in the event of a crisis every company in this branch has to prepared and on their guard for unexpected developments. And that’s why we should all take care to produce an exceptionally good and safe product. For, as history has taught us, a crisis is hardly ever predic- ted.


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editorial


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