CHINA


The king of oyster mushrooms!


Serendipity can have amazing consequences. Prior to 2010, Xiangru Xu, who was born in Guannan in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, had no experience at all with mushrooms – except of course from buying them from a street market or supermarket. But today he reigns supreme as one of the major producers of king oyster mushrooms in China, and probably in the world too.


By John Peeters T


Until 2010, Xu worked as a head-hunter in a Shanghai suburb. He had trained in administration, and was visiting his birthplace one day. Quite by coincidence, he bumped into an old classmate who told him that she worked on a farm where pleurotus erengyi or king oyster mushrooms were produced. And was he intere- sted in taking a look? Xu’s interest was aroused, and the city of Guannan, that likes to profile itself as the centre of mushroom growing,


offered interesting potential for people wishing to start a farm. And, not entirely uncoinciden- tally, Xu’s neighbour is the gigantic Yuguan Mushrooms farm, which featured in MB 73. The investment climate was therefore ideal.


Year-round


Thanks to his links with Guannan and the right encouragement from the local authorities, Xu decided to say farewell to his profession as a head-hunter and dive into the world of growing


Mr Xiangru Xu surrounded by his king oyster mushrooms. 28 MUSHROOM BUSINESS


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