MEETING
Mushrooms in Puerto Rico
Under the motto ‘Navigate the Waters’, the American Mushroom Institute in cooperation with Mushrooms Canada organised the 23rd North American Mushroom Conference (NAMC) from 22 until
24 January. The venue? The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. By John Peeters
T
his stunning tropical island, which is a United States territory, is mainly famed for Bacardi rum and Jennifer Lopez. Apparently, it is home to a single mushroom farm, which was not open to visitors during the NAMC. So why Puerto Rico? Chris Alonzo, chair of the organising committee: “San Juan is the perfect place to relax and while we growers can learn how to boost the efficiency of our farms, surrounded by a large group of colleagues and experts, others are busy shovelling snow.” Murray Good, president of Mushrooms Canada: “We’ve never been to such a fabulous location before. The whole family can come along, and as a professional I am really looking forward to the promising lectures.” That explains it then.
The official opening was held on Thursday 22 January at 5 pm, after the expo had been set up by the exhibitors. As well as a contingent of Canadian and American industry suppliers, many
Dutch companies also attended, including Christiaens, Dalsem, Hoving, GTL Europe, Gicom, Vullings and Limbraco. The conference proper started on Friday. Alonzo welcomed the more than 300 participants (among whom repre- sentatives of 46 farms), sponsors and exhibitors.
16 billion hamburgers
Bart Minor from the Mushroom Council, a pro- motional marketing agency funded by producers, kicked off by showing a film highlighting the successes booked by the agency in the past year; numerous media publications that ultimately brought profits for the growers. In North Amer- ica, sales in 2014 of mushroom products were up by 31 million dollars compared with the previous year. White button mushrooms showed a slight decline in financial revenue, but the trend towards chestnut mushrooms, and portabellos especially, is unstoppable. Trends were also the subject of the contribution by Dr. Mark Lang
Offi cial opening by (ltr): Patty Foss-Bennie (AMI), Don Needham (chairman AMI), Chris Alonzo (chairman NAMC), Murray Good (President Mushrooms Canada), Laura Phelps (AMI), William Stevens (Mushrooms Canada).
8 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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