Eddy Alkemade (l) is handing over the commercial responsibilities for Northern Europe to Jeroen Dunant. Flagship
Regarding the strains, according to Moriamez Euromycel has worked hard in recent years to develop hybrids, improve the shelf life of the mushrooms and increase the number of strains for the fresh market. “The E58 Premium is the flagship of our efforts, and is highly successful in Poland and Russia, while the E21 (for the preserving industry) is also performing well.” Euromycel does not yet offer a strain for brown mushrooms. “That takes time, but the research team has reached a promising stage of develop- ment on this subject.” According to Alkemade, it is still quite a struggle to convince growers that there are alternatives to the A15 or the Heirloom, and he says “Perhaps more than our competitors, our focus is more on cultivation, the end product. That is a different philosophy.” Mathieu: “But once growers are convinced, they tend to stay with the Euromycel strains!”
New start France Champignon Last December, it was announced that France Champignon - with Euromycel also a subsidiary of canning giant Bonduelle since 2010- was in
difficulties and had requested suspension of payments. Did this have consequences for the spawn producer? Alkemade: “Since its acquisi- tion by Bonduelle, a major modernisation plan was implemented at France Champignon, but improvements were not visible quickly enough and the Dutch producers, for example, were able to operate for lower costs. The cooperative was unable to compete, and booked too little profit from this branch.” This led to a reorganisation at the end of last year, the closure of one of the three compost plants and a restart with two. “Fortunately, the redundancies were limited to 17. And as mushroom production has only been reduced by 10% there appears to be a brighter future ahead for France Champignon.” Alke- made does not see the tray system used by the producer as outmoded. “The tray system in La Tourte (near Saumur, where one third of the French mushrooms are grown) may be relatively more expensive to use, but it does produce a very high percentage of first-class quality mushrooms for the preserving industry, and that is where we have a very large market. We can go full speed ahead again!”
‘Our primary task is to listen to the needs of the grower’
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 13
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