and heard all about their projects. Our guide at GTL was Jack Lemmen, and Mart Christiaens did the honours at Christiaens. Both companies are very internationally-oriented and are continuing to develop and expand their spheres of opera- tion. At Christiaens we saw the latest cultivation and harvesting technology whereby mobile beds bring the mushrooms to the pickers. It wouldn’t be a complete day without a farm walk, so we went to Koert Pleunis’s farm in Stramproy where he grows exotics (My Farm also features Koert – see page 44). And naturally, we enjoyed another mushroom-themed lunch, this time at ‘Paddenstoelerij’ in Grubbenvorst.
Spawn and substrate
On Friday morning, we received a warm welcome at Sylvan’s spawn facility in Horst. Director Jos Geelen, Ger Hendriks, Bart Aldenzee and exotic
expert Jorge Calvo from Spain explained all the ins and outs. Flying in Jorge Calvo gave extra emphasis to Sylvan’s exotic strains. After a tour of the spawn facility, the future and potential for growth of exotic mushrooms in Europe were discussed. In the case of Sylvan, the opening of their new laboratory in France certainly seems to have opened up more possibilities to pay a contribution in this respect. In the afternoon, it was the turn of Jan Koop- mans from Substraatbedrijf Horst to show us his company. Jan and his team produce spawned oyster mushroom substrate packs for the Euro- pean markets, and occasionally further afield. Each week, a load of pre-fermented straw (phase 1) arrives from John Verbruggen’s company and is filled into the tunnels. Following a pasteuri- sation and cooling process of around six days in the tunnel, the straws substrate is inoculated and packaged into handy packs weighing around 16 kg. Transparent or black/white film plastic film is used depending on customer specifica- tions, and if required the packs can be perforated for the oyster mushrooms to grow through. The packs are subsequently placed in racks and taken to the spawning rooms where they are left for about two weeks before being delivered to the customers. The company has grown so much that two former mushroom farms are being rented as well to create space to spawn run the substrate packs so as to meet demand. Similar to the majority of substrate/tunnel companies in our sector, the sales area has to transcend the Dutch borders in order to survive.
Most of the members of the group used the final day to start their journey home. For the die- hards, there was a chance to visit the mushroom museum De Locht in Melderslo. The well-known celebrity of the mushroom world, Johan Jansen, was on hand to guide the tour.
Substrate packs in the spawning rooms at Jan Koopmans’ Substraatbedrijf Horst.
We can look back on a successful trip, with visits to the crème de la crème of the Dutch mushroom industry. It is positive and encouraging to see that here in the Netherlands people are still prepared to open their doors to visitors, some- thing that cannot always be taken for granted in other countries.
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MUSHROOM BUSINESS 37
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