MYFARM
In each edition of “Mushroom Business”, we publish an interview with a grower. The emphasis here is on the farm and cultivation methods. This issue features a portrait of “Koopmans Paddestoelen BV” in Melderslo, Limburg. The farm manager
is Ardy van Dooren. By John Peeters
Koopmans mushrooms (NL) The grower
“We’re here on the mech- anised cutting farm that initially belonged to the Vogelzangs family. Toon Koopmans, the present owner, took the company over last year. I had my own farm in Liessel until 2010, where I produced mushrooms for the fresh market. It was a struggle even back then for smaller farms like mine to survive, so I decided to work for Funghi
Farms, where I met Ies Hooglucht who now regularly advises me here in his current role as an advisor at Lambert Spawn Europe. I began working here in October 2014, when Koopmans acquired the farm. We set out by cleaning the buildings thoroughly and making some changes. We started production in the four large rooms, but from May we have also started using six older growing rooms so we
can produce three flushes. Dry bubble is one of the more seri- ous problems that traditionally plagued this farm. We pay a lot of attention to the problem, like good hygiene and properly removing all the traces if you cut into a bubble – you must be able to relocate the patch as soon as possible. We also grade all our production in the old premises, so we decided not to rent them out. We are going to use the space by harvesting
a third flush, which is quite lucrative as far as we can see.”
Cultivation Toon Koopmans’ farm com- prises four growing rooms, each of 1728 m2
growing
area, and an older section of 14 rooms of 600 m2
. Six of
the rooms in this section are being used currently. The farm operates a six-week cycle with mechanical harvesting of the three flushes. Each week,
Ardy van Dooren: “The third flushes are promising, but can probably still improve.” 40 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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