EXOTIC MUSHROOMS
Trafoon benefi ts exotic mushroom growers
A three year EU-project called Trafoon has been set up to transfer knowledge and evaluate needs of growers involved in small-scale cultivation of, among other produce, exotic mushrooms. Your ideas on possible projects are needed.
By Anton Sonnenberg, WUR S
mall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food sector in Europe are under constant pressure due to open markets, increasing demands for
standardization and governmental regulations, and prize competition by the large retailers. Especially the SMEs involved in the production or processing of traditional food products are at risk while, on the other hand, the consumer interest for these products are increasing in many European countries.
To support these companies, a 3-year EU- project, namely, Trafoon, has started in 2013 by establishing a knowledge transfer network with focus on products made of grains, fish, fruits, vegetables and mushrooms (
http://www.trafoon.eu/). The intention has been to gather the existing knowledge and make this available on a website, to transfer know- ledge through workshops and to evaluate the needs of these sectors in order to develop a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). This SRIA can be used to generate research projects for SMEs to come up with a solution of present bottlenecks. Therefore, the particular technological and innovation needs of the growers involved in small-scale production of mushrooms were analysed in four different countries i.e. Poland, the Netherlands, Germany and Greece. Poland has directed its attention mainly to button mushrooms and the other three countries were focused on the exotic mushrooms. This article will only address the issues related to cultivation of exotic mushrooms.
28 MUSHROOM BUSINESS Exotics in Europe
The production and consumption of button mushrooms in Europe is now stagnating or even declining slowly. The exotic mushrooms form only a small part of the total mushroom produc- tion in Europe but this market is steadily increasing. The main species cultivated are Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eryngii, Lentinula edodes, Flammulina velutipes, Pholiota nameko, Agrocybe aegerita and Grifola frondosa. The first three species represent the majority of the market of exotic mushrooms. A number of producers, processors and suppliers in the industry in the Netherlands, Germany and Greece were interviewed to get a clear impres- sion of the needs of this sector and to perform a SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportuni- ties and Treats; Table 1). All data were used anonymously.
Exotic mushrooms are mainly produced on a small or even micro scale with production volumes varying from a few hundreds to 1000 kg per week. The strength of this sector comes especially from the product itself: mushrooms are considered as a healthy food product and the acceptance by consumers is high. The weakness of the sector is mainly formed by the lack of professionality when compared to button mushroom producers. In Germany and Greece, often cultivation rooms are used that have no facilities to regulate an optimal climate. In the Netherlands, exotics are often cultivated in abandoned button mushroom farms that have a fairly good climate system. Substrates produced by special companies have on average a good quality but a number of growers are producing
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