in size.” However, in his opinion this in no way means that Sylvan has less personal contact with growers. “On the contrary. Take the mechanical harvesting farms here in Holland – they decide which spawn strains they use themselves. The growers have more say in the matter, so we pay more regular visits.” Geelen adds: “Composters and growers are both our customers. The focus with growers is more on cultivation advice and with composters more on improving the logistic processes and spreading risks. In Poland in particular, growers can choose from a multitude of market parties. That’s one of the reasons we have set up a dedicated Sylvan team for that market. And don’t forget large integrated companies, where the decisive vote is not with the grower or composter, but the management.” Sylvan Nederland is not really concerned by the emerging competition, and – obviously – relies on its own, proven strengths. “For many years the competitors followed in our footsteps, and now they can stand perfectly well on their own feet. As a company, Sylvan is very proud of its reliable, high-quality production and excellent reputation. Continuity is of extreme importance to the current professional companies and customers, but sometimes they want to use other spawn. We have to respond and listen to what our customers really want. We used to be the bar, now the time has come to raise that bar”, says Hesen.
Strain development
One of the attention points is the development of new strains. “Last year, we opened a new laboratory in France for strain development. The actual production process is down to a fine art, we see the future in new strains and new carriers. Rye is no longer sacred; the use of millet is on the rise.”
And Accelerated Spawn Run ? Hendriks: “We don’t really see any added value in it. If a product isn’t better, then we won’t introduce it. There is a lot to gain in other regions of the world by using alternative carriers.” And brown varieties – they are a current trend? Hesen: “The 800 was a really nice brown variety, but its market share has slipped slightly, at the moment a competitor strain dominates the market.” Sylvan plans to develop more strains for the mechanical sector. However, limited protection of the rights covering new varieties for producers is an obstacle. “That protection is still not 100% watertight, so it encourages copying, and holds back the necessary innova- tion. However, a lot of effort is being put into remedying this situation”, explains Geelen, who emphasises that all Sylvan strains originate from their own mycelium bank. A15 is still Sylvan’s most popular strain,
Sylvan recently installed a new, robotised production handling sys- tem at the plant in Horst. “There were certain elements of the plant that were ripe for an update”, explains Jos Geelen. “This super-fast robot now performs many unergo- nomic tasks and the new hydraulic loading platform and a shift system means that our employees - many of whom have been with us for a long time - enjoy their work, and will continue to do so!”
followed in second place by the 512 (mechanical harvesting strain for the Netherlands), the 520 and the 737 (mainly popular in Poland). Accord- ing to Geelen, Sylvan has a strong share of the European market for mushroom spawn. “Our prices place us in the upper market segment.”
Forging and maintaining relationships
More than before, the sales team will concen- trate on forging relationships with customers, working together on developing concepts: “With growers we can work on creating higher yields and improving the technical side of growing. Specifically for that we have recruited a new representative in Poland, Adam Polisiakiewicz, who has a strong technical background. Bart is responsible for that aspect in the Netherlands. These days, account managers really have to know a lot about the technicalities of mushroom production. With a compost producer, you can examine ways of improving hygiene, taking steps forward together. The approach can differ per customer, and we aim to serve them with local representatives, instead of flying in people from here. And alert customers proactively if anything threatens to go wrong, so we can be ahead of any problems.”
Just like other spawn producers, Sylvan takes testing and risk spreading extremely seriously (using a variety of production lines, parallel production, splitting the mother strain), but excluding every vestige of risk is impossible. “Once the spawn has been supplied to a cus- tomer, it is not always optimally or continually traced, or different batch codes might be mixed up. Together with tunnel companies we are working on a way of exchanging data more actively in order to prevent this type of prob- lem”, says the new GM.
More than before, the sales team
will concentrate on forging
relationships with customers.
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 37
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