By Kasia Bieniecka PIECZARKALIA 2024
Sustainable development and reasons to celebrate
The annual big event of the Polish mushroom industry Pieczarkalia 2024, traditionally organised by Wokas the biggest producer of casing soil in Poland, was held on the 3rd of October in Lochow Castle and Estate, a modern conference venue near Warsaw.
T
The European mushroom ‘hidden gem’
promotion efforts are well on track.
he conference attracted 296 partici- pants but another hundred joined the evening banquet and enjoyed the concert of a famous Polish pop-sin-
ger, Sylwia Grzeszczak. This year’s event was special as it celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Polish Mushroom Growers Association (SBGU) and Krystian Szudyga and awarded other leaders for their contributions.
All that matters to us The organisers addressed a wide range of topics, highlighting the significant advancements in the mushroom growing industry, both in Poland and internationally. Esteemed local and inter- national speakers discussed critical issues rele- vant to contemporary mushroom growers, such as mushroom consumption, infection control, and innovative research on peat-free casing soil. The conference was moderated by one of Poland’s most renowned TV journalists, Maciej Kurzajewski, and concluded with an inspiring motivational speech by another TV celebrity, Dorota Wellman. The event commenced with a warm welcome from Wojciech Bułło, the President of the Management Board of Wokas. Speaking on behalf of the company, which took over the organisation of this event in Poland a few years ago, he highlighted their ongoing efforts to make the event as inclusive and engaging as possible for all industry stakeholders. This year’s event centred around the themes of cooperation, innovations, trust and efficiency.
Promotion and consumption The first presentation was given by Krystian Szudyga who presented 25 years of the activities
42 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
of the Polish Association of Edible Mushroom Growers (SBGU). The organisation has attracted 120 members until now and its president sees its role mainly as an umbrella for the entire industry. He talked about research and analysis of con- sumption as well as some historical reflection on setting prices for mushrooms. He also men- tioned the association’s history of international cooperation with organisations like the ISMS and NAMC as well as cooperation with Polish scientists and research institutions. The association has successfully organised some local promotion campaigns aimed at increasing mushroom consumption in Poland like Ja Piec- zarka (‘Me Mushroom’), Pieczarka ma moc (‘The power of mushrooms’) and the Mushroom Party hosted in front of the most famous building in Warsaw - the Palace of Culture. The mushroom promotion in Poland expanded to all modern media channels and its initiators - including Maciej Spychał, who is the president of the Polish team within the European Association of Mushrooms Growers (GEPC) - seem to be very successful in engaging influencers and celebri- ties to promote mushrooms and mushroom consumption. This success is reflected in the rising numbers of followers and a growing com- munity of mushroom fans. The next speaker - Paul Wilson, the head of the GEPC – linked up to this presentation and talked about the results of the European mushroom promotion efforts - one campaign in nine mushroom markets known also as “European Mushrooms: the hidden gem” (see also MB 126). Wilson showed the audience that the gem is gaining in value which can be expressed by some very concrete figures. The production volume of the participating countries amounts
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