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POLAND What’s in a name?
To clear up any misunderstanding straightaway: Prime Champ Poland has nothing to do with the struggling Prime Champ in the Netherlands. The only thing they have in common is the name, more about which later. The Polish company was established in 2009 as a sales organisation representing six mushroom growers in Poland. These growers currently have a total growing surface area of 16,000 square metres, which does not seem particularly large. Piotr Kurzawa is responsible for marketing the mushrooms produced by these six growers at Prime Champ. “We started small, but hope to expand in a controlled fashion. Our six suppliers, or members, all have the scope to grow. We presently sell around 60 tons of white mushrooms per week.”
Jastrowie Prime Champ Poland operates from a distribution centre in Jastrowie, situated in the north west of Poland, approxi- mately 150 kilometres north of Poznan. Their pleasant building was previously the property of Agropex, a com- pany owned by Austrian Dietmar Sohm, a well-known name in the mushroom world. Prime Champ bought the premises in 2010 and wants to upgrade the facilities by adding vacuum cooling and rapid refrigeration to the regular cold stores already present. Kurzawa: “We are busy starting up a producers’ association. In this way we hope to access funding for investment here, and also on our growers’ farms.” President Barbara Beker adds: “The idea is for our six growers to form a producers’ organisa- tion as soon as possible. From that situation we can look at the options and expand our activities. Our company is operating really well now too, but the PO status will make us much stronger. Currently all the production from our six growers comes together at a single point in Jastrowie, from where the mushrooms are distributed following a thorough quality inspection . We have a very good relationship with our customer in England. Piotr Kurzawa is tasked with the job of selling all the mushrooms pro- duced by the group. The market is good and we want to expand, but we need more mushrooms to do that.”
Primechamp.pl One inevitable question keeps popping up in the mind of a journalist from a trade publication based in the Netherlands. Why that name? Kurzawa explains: “Prior to 2009 a group of growers attempted to set up an as- sociation under the name EkoChamp. Their plans failed to materialise in the end, so another attempt was made which meant thinking of a new name. One of the growers came up with Prime Champ. Whether he had already heard the name somewhere? I don’t think really think he was aware of it, no. It’s simply a good name, and also suitable for the UK market. At a later stage the Dutch
For many, the name Prime Champ will forever be associated with the successor to Heveco. Prime Champ was recently acquired by Monaghan Mushrooms. But few know that there is a company of the same
name active in Poland. Barbara Beker, president of Prime Champ Poland, hopes this will soon change. By John Peeters
Prime Champ tried to take over our website, with the .pl extension, but we were not interested in negotiating. We do not really pay that much attention to developments at our Dutch namesake. And, anyway, just one look at our full name, Grupa Producentow Grzybow Prime Champ Sp, pretty much says it all about our origins.”
Distance Prime Champ collects the mushrooms produced on the six farms, which are spread geographically quite widely over the north of Poland, from west to east. The mushrooms from the most distant site have a journey of almost seven hours before they reach the distribution centre in Jastrowie. Nearly all the mushrooms harve- sted are placed loose in 6- pound punnets, which is 2.72 kg. Kurzawa: “Twice a week we ship a full load of mushrooms, all in the 6-pound packaging, to Fresh Direct in England. We have built up a fine working relati- onship with that customer, and they know precisely what they can expect from us. On Monday afternoon the lorry leaves the site here to arrive in England on Wednesday morning, and the other lorry leaves on Wednesday and arrives at destination on Friday morning. As three to four days can pass between picking and arrival on the mar- ket there we place a huge emphasis on quality and pre- sentation. Our growers know that the mushrooms have
Piotr Kurzawa: “Two lorry loads per week to Eng- land is a good start.”
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