CORONA
Charity box in the canteen of Funghitex compost yard.
Instruction poster of the Irish department of health at Walsh.
inside. In the canteen there are tv’s with instruc- tion movies. The intention of the government is that the food industry must keep working and they implement laws and protocols and dissemi- nate information how to continue. Because of the closure of restaurants and markets, the sales is 30% less, so the production of mushrooms and compost is reduced. But (transport)costs are increasing.”
Japan – April
From Japan we heard that demand for mushrooms remained good. In the first weeks of March, losses were seen in the sales of fresh mushrooms, mainly because of the school closu- res (school lunches in Japan all contain mushrooms). But sources say, this loss was quickly compensated by the raise of demand for mushrooms in supermarkets, as consumers started cooking them themselves.
South Africa – 14 April According to Martmari Van Greuning (Sylvan Africa), the SA industry has been hit very hard, between a 30-50% market retraction, depending on the split between catering and retail. Biggest problem for Sylvan Africa is exports to Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia is not possible.
Italy - 8 April
The first Corona patient was registered February 21st in the town of Codogno near Milan and Italy became one of the hardest hit countries in the world (31.000 deaths halfway May). The govern- ment implemented a severe lockdown on March 9th. The virus outbreak has had a big impact on the Italian mushroom industry, with an estima- ted sales reduction of 30%. Growers stopped, or destroyed crops, especially growers selling to restaurants, tourism and open markets. Super- market chains had a smaller reduction.
Luigi Pucinischi, Funghitex Group, Velletri/Rome
Funghitex group has a phase III compostyard, a Pleurotus compost yard and 2 mushroom farms.
50 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
“We had a reduction of about 25% of sales in our compost yard. We immediately had to adapt our production plan to the new scenario, and manage the logistics hour by hour. We had to manage the increase of the carry over compost”, says Luigi Pucinischi. He thinks that the situation won’t be back to normal before summer. “At our farms we reviewed our Safety procedure and Organization. Production crews were organized in such a way to avoid contact, and we have increased cleaning and disinfection operations. All operators were equipped with gloves and a safety mask in cases where the minimum distance can’t be respected. We have informed all operators and suppliers and we are closely monitoring the adherence to the new rules. We have postponed all non-urgent maintenance activities. We asked people, where possible, to work from home, and canceled all visits to customers, supporting them via telep- hone or Skype. We also use much more confe- rence calls. There is a charity point in our canteen to collect food for people who need help this moment.”
Nicola Braido, Agrifung, Treviso Agrifung is a phase III compostyard with 2 plants. Nocila Braido tells us, that the outbreak had a big impact on their operation. "Growers had cancel- led the compost that was already ordered. Two weeks ago, during the worst week, we sold 30% compost less. At the moment I can say -20%. At the farms we adjust the production program every week, considering the trend of the sales channel and our customer orders in order to pro- duce the right quantity of compost; we wrote an internal procedure to manage the situation and to reduce Covid-19 contamination; all workers got a special training. We are now at the 5th revi- sion of our procedure! In our view, a company is a sort of small community, so we have a social res- ponsibility. We have to give people information about the situation, show them how to change their behaviour. The older people were allowed to stay at home. Furthermore, disinfection has been increased to the highest level. In every room, at every composting machine you can find a deter-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
