SPAWN Step by step
For spawn producer Euromycel, the takeover by Bonduelle in 2010 opened new ways to progress. In March, we visited the plant and we talked with director Frédéric Mathieu and his team about the steps
that have been made, and the philosophy behind them. By Roel Dreve
E
uromycel is probably not Europe’s most well-known name in spawn production. This may be connected to the transformations the company has undergone in the past. The company that started life as Royal Champignon changed its name to France Mycelium in 1985. In 2000, the name Euromycel was adopted to symbolise the step into the export world (Poland). Today the spawn laboratory owned by Bonduelle, exports 75% of it volumes to Eastern and Middle East countries mainly on the fresh market. On French territory the spawn laboratory supplies the integrated Bonduelle organization.
From spawn to can
Yves Moriamez is head of the research depart- ment which consists of a master lab combined with testing facilities and an analytical lab. Once we located him, he came straight to the point. “The main focus of our research in the past was the spawn itself. We now consider spawn to be a component in a greater whole. We take a more integrated approach to research now, by examining the compost, casing soil (here often the ‘tuffeau stone’ found in the Loire valley) and supplements, and the interaction between those media.”
The tipping point hasn’t come as a complete surprise. Bonduelle, the mother company, that acquired France Champignon including spawn producer Euromycel (see MB 55) in 2010, also propagates the philosophy: managing the supply chain from ‘seed to can’. Bonduelle thought that not enough innovation was taking place in the field of spawn, and when asked if he had been given carte blanche to perform research Moriamez confirmed with a smile, and joked: “But not with a carte blanche budget ofcourse!” Since the changes, he and his team have booked progress. “We have devised a method of developing different spawn strains, the level
30 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
of quality inspection has improved, and we use NIR analyses for mushroom breeding. We apply one breeding programme for canned produce, and one for fresh. We don’t practice genetic breeding, but look closely at what works well in practical situations. Strain maintenance is key.” The company believes that Euromycel’s mid range hybrids have a huge potential that only a dedicated scaling up process can demonstrate. “We want to take existing products to a high level, and keep them there, but we also want to ‘raise’ the strain, by bringing out all the best traits”, said Moriamez. Commercial strains have to be suitable for growing purposes in practice, and the produc- tivity of varieties can be boosted by adapting the spawn process. For instance, a fresh market strain was accelerated for industry applications. “It’s maybe not the most fancy form of research, but it’s pretty useful fine-tuning.” The research team is made of a genetician with an assistant, two highly experienced technicians and a grower. They are responsible for maintain- ing the strains and the mycobank in the master lab. There are also four growing rooms used for breeding and quality controls, where strain lines are tested, and compared with commercial products. The mother cultures are released to the Euromycel plant in L’Île-Bouchard for inoculum production.
Mirroring practice Afterwards, we visited La Tourte close to Saumur, one of the three production sites of France Champignon, where one third of French mushrooms are produced (see centre spread). La Tourte is a tray farm – a quite customary system in France – with one less than 200 employees. The farm has its own compost yard, where weekly production now totals 2000 tons of phase I.
On the site, 10 growing rooms are harvested
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