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CHINA >
Peter Marcelissen of Fancom during his lecture.
Professor Yi Huang speaks on the hurdles for successful Agaricus cultivation in China.
to this gap in development. The first is the lack of R&D. “Chinese research has a very limited influence and is distanced from the situation in practice. Cultivation related problems don’t get repeated in Korea or the Netherlands – they get solved.” A second factor is a lack of investment. “Chinese investors are only prepared to supply limited funding, but want high dividends in the short term. In the Netherlands, skill and experience are handed down from father to son, and companies have a long term vision”, said Yi Huang. A third, major cause is the instable production of compost and mushrooms. “Production per m2 is much lower than in Europe, the quality and quantity of casing soil is inconsistent and many production sites close in summer, even though that’s when prices are the highest!” There has been some experimentation with the ‘Irish model’ in China, transporting trays of compost into shed, a system that is well suited to China. The sheds are hard- wearing, well insulated and relatively low cost. “However, knowledge about the shed climate is missing”, commen- ted the professor. “What we should be aiming for is a more steady supply of stable quality raw material like straw. There is also a short supply of good chicken manure and casing soil in Fujian and transport – from the north – is expensive. What we also need in China is far more expertise regarding composting and knowledge about pests and disease, in other word hygiene measures during cultiva- tion, and better machines. We may have low wages here, but unfortunately production levels are low too.” Yi Huang remarked that many large, modern mushroom farms have been built or are under construction at the moment. “Chinese growers stand to learn a lot from these examples, for example good management prac- tice, certainly on very large production sites.” And that is a further point, he states: “Why do we have to build so large? Why do we always want to be number one? Why can’t we just start with six growing rooms?!” To conclude, Yi Huang showed some photos of Dutch farms, automatic picking lorries and a one-layer bed system, recognisa- ble as Whitefields. Professor Guo-Liang Yang, Centre of Biotechnology, Hebei University, followed on with an overview of the status and prospects for mushroom growing in China. Agaricus is predominantly grown in Shandong Province, as well as in nine other provinces. Just a few producers are responsible for half of Chinese mushroom produc- tion, that amounts to 1.3 million tons a year. The price development is highly unstable, but market demand is growing. Yields in Fujian, at 20 kg/m2, are labeled ‘good’ by the professor. The past years have witnessed an influx of foreign expertise, something he views positively. He mentioned Peter Christiaens, who has performed a lot of pionee- ring work in China. “We must open our minds to foreign knowhow and buy machines abroad, we can learn so much from others!”
A look on part of the fairgrounds outside the hotel
Supplement and biopesticides After the Chinese perspective on developments in mushroom growing, it was the turn of some Dutch and American speakers to take to the rostrum. Monir Elzalak, president of Sylvan Inc. sketched the history of spawn since 1945 (Sinden) until present (Synthetic C.I.). “Today some 1.4 million tons of mushrooms are grown on Sylvan spawn strains each year! Our vision is innovating, providing added value and supporting our customers.
We are on a constant quest for a superior variety for the fresh market: an aggressive grower, a flexible mushroom with longer keeping properties. The same applies to mechanised harvest (e.g the 520), and we are searching for high yielding, brown strains, such as the J10263 (‘Forestiere’), sporeless and with a better flavour”, said Elzalak. Dr Mark Wach from Sylvan BioSciences introduced the development and use of supplements in mushroom growing. He gave his Chinese audience some guidance about using them. “A grower should be fully aware of what the supplement precisely contains, as the protein content can vary widely per product. Some supplements are easy to steer (little protein, little fat), but the boost they deliver, and therefore the extra production, is slight. Products with low protein and low fat contents are the opposite. A grower has to be able to manage the heat increase this produces, is it easy to apply, is it not too expensive relative to the yield it gives, does it suit your type of compost? In short: ‘Match the load to the road’”. Wach recommended buying a good supplement from a reliable supplier, otherwise growers risk being saddled with more problems than profit. In a presentation held later, Wach spoke about two new protection agents from Sylvan. ‘Jazz’, a biopesticide that is deployed against Trichoderma, and ‘Zivion M’ to control Verticillium. According to him, extremely good results have been seen particularly in the USA.
Christiaens and Fancom Mart Christiaens, president of the Christiaens Group gave a detailed explanation of the buildings, machines and logistics required for mushroom growing, in line with the products exported all over the world by his company. Also by Christiaens China, Mart told us. “Our vision is to build mushroom growing in China from the grass roots up. That means producing shelving first, then climate control systems and so on. That will take about three years.” The company, that has already been active in the country for some years, has formed a joint venture with a Chinese partner for this purpose and makes products uniquely for the Chinese mushroom market in China. “The greatest advantage is the avoidance of import duty, which offers huge savings for Chinese customers. The rest of the world is supplied from Christi- aens’ base in Horst, the Netherlands.” Peter Marcelissen, area sales manager from Fancom, the Netherlands, was the conference’s last speaker at the Agaricus session. His spoke of the huge importance of automatic climate control in mushroom growing. Auto- matic systems reduce compost processing time, check the planning, reduce energy use and labour input, and create the optimal conditions for compost. Good data management systems help farm managers to analyse, control and adjust the processes involved in cultivation. “To be one step ahead of the problem”, as Marcelissen summed it up.
The conference programme also featured plenty of alternative, interesting lectures about other types of edible mushrooms, ranging from the latest packaging technology for oyster mushrooms to industrial produc- tion of Nameko. All things considered, a broad spectrum of information at an interesting event, that will certainly see another edition next year. ◗
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