and a modest amount of pioppino. The produc- tion from numerous farms is collected and packed at a central packing station. A number of new cold stores were built this year and will shortly be put into use. The company employs a total workforce of 50: 30 in the packing station and 20 involved in mushroom growing. The entire production ‘division’ numbers more than 100 growing rooms or sheds, located on various sites in the vicinity. About 70 of these are used for oyster mushrooms and 38 to grow shiitake. A smaller, new farm with 10 sheds is used to grow eryngii in bottles. After a tour of the sheds, we had a look at the various types of packaging and mixed packs at the packing station. Ramon Vallondo is also a respected supplier to all the big names in the mushroom trade in North Europe.
After this demanding part of the visit, the Vallondo family and Sylvan invited us for a meal, where all the stops were pulled out to ensure we had an unforgettable afternoon and evening. Felix Castanon from the Vallondo family is a master in the kitchen, and partnered by a fantastic selection of wines, his culinary creations were an absolute delight! From Sylvan, Harrie Hesen and Christel Chevallier joined Jorge Calvo as fellow travellers on this journey.
Champinter
After a good night’s sleep, we climbed aboard the coach on Wednesday morning to cover a distance of 550 km to the region around Albacete. As this journey takes some six to seven hours, no excursions were planned for the same day. This allowed us all to turn up well-rested on Thursday morning to start our visit to Sociedad Cooperativa Champinter. This organisation is so large it was difficult to see all of it in just one day. The Champinter cooperative dates back to 1977 and covers the entire supply chain in the mushrooms and exotic industry, ranging from compost production to packaging and marketing fresh mushrooms, or processed mushrooms in cans or jars. At the company, 450 tons of mushrooms and 50 tons of exotic mushrooms are produced by a total of 50 growers on a weekly basis. Our excursion stated at Champinter’s old mushroom compost production plant, which now produces substrate for oyster mushrooms and shiitake. The production procedure is comparable to that in the Rioja region. We then proceeded to Champinter’s current compost plant. This state of the art facility was started in 2007 and has since seen three expansion projects. There are currently 14 phase I bunkers and 48 phase II/III tunnels, that produce 1900 tons incubated (phase III) mushroom compost weekly. This is transported to the growers, with
Fellow travellers of Sylvan: Christelle Chevalier, Harry Hesen und Jorge Calvo.
CTICH off ers a modern facility where cultivation trials can be run.
The entire production ‘division’ of Vallondo numbers more than 100 growing sheds, located on various sites.
15% in blocks and 30% in bulk, and the remai- ning 45% filled in trays. There are advanced plans to add five extra bunkers and 16 phase II/ III tunnels in 2017.
The composting process starts by soaking bales of 100% straw in a percolate tank and leaving them to stand for several days. On a large mixing line gypsum, urea, chicken manure and ammo-
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