CONTENTS Putin’s barrier 8 30 8
12 18 26 30 34 38
Visiting Shinshe, Taiwan Pieczarkalia 2014 report My farm: Burgs (PL) Fungiturismo promotes mushrooms Upcycling Spent Mushroom Compost Northway growers visit Poland The Christiaens Group expands
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At the end of June, I attended the Pieczarkalia trade event in Siedlce, not far from the border between Poland and Uk- raine. The Polish mushroom growing industry was booming and in the early days of summer, the simmering civil unrest in neighbouring Ukraine was just another news item. Perhaps the situation was refl ected a little in a reduced availability of cheap labour from Ukraine, as many men had been drafted into the army. However, political relations between Russia and the West were cooling rapidly. After the change of power in Kiev, in February 2014, tensions quickly escalated, culminating in the crisis in the Crimea and the continuing struggle for power in the east of Ukraine. On 17 July, Malaysia Airlines fl ight MH17 was brought down, unleashing a tragedy with an immense impact on the Netherlands due to the high number of Dutch passengers on the plane. Sanctions against Russia were tightened, and in early August, Putin hit back by announcing a boycott on the import of fruit and vegetables, and fresh mushrooms, from the EU into Russia. Russia has frequently resorted to this type of political weapon in the past, but never on this scale. The extreme importance of exports to Russia for the Polish mushroom industry caused alarm bells to go off all over the rest of mushroom-producing Europe. If Polish mushrooms usually destined for Russia started to fl ood the West-European market, the logical result would be a price freefall.
The Dutch LTO Mushroom Group convened for an emer- gency meeting aimed at implementing measures that would limit any damage suffered by its members. T
alks with the
Dutch cabinet, the European Agricultural Council and chain partners followed. The hope was that due to their geograp- hical location and fi xed (price) agreements with buyers, Dutch growers would not feel the direct pinch of any negative knock-on effects. The GEPC Assembly asked the EU to assist the European sector – and Poland in particular – to limit production in the coming months. Poland itself has also hastily looked into solutions and alterative measures (less processing, less compost).
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Cover foto: Fungiturismo S.L promotes mushroom growing in the Spanish La Rioja region through its restaurant and promotional tours, during which children can pick their own mushrooms (see page 26).
o what extent will EU-produced mushrooms still be exported via countries such as Belarus (travelling with another ‘passport’)? But it is beyond doubt that the boycott could potentially hit the European mushroom industry hard, certainly if the sanctions last long. How long? Only Putin knows.
Russia growers are obviously in a quite different position. According to Alexander Khrenov of the Mushroom School in Moscow, the price of mushrooms in Russia had already risen halfway through August, which has motivated Russian producers to grow more mushrooms. Expansion is possible, provided the Russian authorities support the growers by pro- viding cheap loans. Other mushroom producing nations, that are not EU members, can also benefi t from the boycott. Ironically, Ukraine was still able to export fresh mushrooms to Russia in August, and a rise in demand was immediately noticeable according to Maksym Yenchenko of UMDIS. However, Ukrainian producers do not know how long this export route will hold, even if they can physically meet the demand. The largest producer for example, Miko-Food, nor- mally exports a few thousand tons to Russia, but had to halt production in July when the company suddenly found itself at the epicentre of the battles in East Ukraine. It is still too soon to draw any conclusions about the long- term effects. T
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Roel Dreve Tel. +31 (0)6 23617575
roel@mushroombusiness.com www.mushroombusiness.nl
editorial
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