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SPAWN Amycel France expands
Amycel France held an Open Day for relations from the Dutch mushroom industry in Vendôme on 19 June, just be- fore production starts in the new extension of the French spawn plant.
By Roel Dreve
On Wednesday, a select company of – mainly – Dutch guests (composters, consultants) gathered at Hotel Mercator for dinner and to watch two crucial Worldcup soccer matches. During the evening there was plenty of time to talk with sales representatives of Amycel Europe. John Kidder, Vice President of Monterey Mushrooms was also present, as was Arpad Mutsy from BioFungi in Hungary. Next morning, guests were given a guided tour in two groups through the Amycel plant at Boulevard de l’Industrie, after Kidder had held a talk on Vita- min D treatment of mushrooms in the US. Cecile Ogier explained the ins and outs of the extensive tests during every stage of spawn pro- duction at the plant, while Hubert Hay, director of Amycel France showed us around the ultra modern and hygienic premises, including the lab, the in- noculation operation, the grain towers, the cooking tower, three of the incubation rooms (2 x 70 tons of
A view of the main buildings at the Vendôme plant with the double cooking tower in the middle. On the left, a new grain delivery has arrived.
John Kidder, Vice President of Monterey Mushrooms talks about Vitamin D enhanced mushrooms, which sell well in the US.
spawn and 1 x 100 tons), cooling facilites, packa- ging and shipping area. Amycel will soon introduce a new strain on the European market, called Topaz. “Topaz is a ‘cream’ Agaricus variety, a mix of white and brown. It has a round shape with a heavy structure, and we see a lot of demand from processing companies allready”, said Hay. Topaz is allready grown on Monterey farms across the US. The most popular spawn varieties being produced by Amycel at the moment are the XXX (40%) and the Heirloom (20%) for the fresh market, the Delta (especially for French canneries because of the longer stem) and the Phoenix, which is cultivated a lot in the US. Some 6% of spawnproduction is for exotic mushroom cultivation. Another new product by Amycel is Onyxx HPS, a grainless, high performance spawn, which, toge- ther with CI, is produced in a seperate facility at the Vendôme plant (because of the high volumes of dust involved in the production process). Onyxx is a faster spawn type and less susceptible to Trichoderma. This is a huge advantage, because the disease is still a big problem, especially in the US, according to Hay. The grainless spawn contains more mycelium in the same volume as opposed to
CI and grainless spawn are produced in a seperate facility at the Vendôme plant.
Grain delivery sampling before the material is pumped into the silo. All grain come from the region, and millet is purchased directly from sup- plying farms.
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