Pre wet heaps at Mercer.
Brian Tipper of Costa Mushrooms Adelaide and Aniça Amini of Sylvan France checking out the compost at Mercer Mushrooms.
Stéphane Doutriaux, MycoSense CEO, demonstrates the Spotlight Harvesting Intelligence system.
Nici Wickes celebrity chef prepared a great lunch at Mercer.
Australia and New Zealand Day 2 was International Speaker Day, with seven renowned speakers, from Europe, Canada and the US. In his opening address Geoff Martin, Organisation Committee Chair, alluded to the close connection bet- ween Australia and New Zealand, which dates from early colonial times, the shared WW1 experiences, and the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, which permits the free movement of citizens between both countries and the right to reside in either. In 2000 one in ten Kiwis actually resided in Australia. Former NZ. PM. Muldoon, when asked in 1984 to comment on the one sided exodus, quipped, “New Zealanders who leave for Australia raise the IQ of both countries.” Geoff also noted that the issues facing growers in both countries are similar. The cost of raw materials, labor and energy continue to increase, difficulties in attracting and retaining labor, dealing with regulators, inflationary pressures impac- ting sales, negotiating with overzealous retailers and battling to obtain a decent return to farm gate for their mushrooms,
affects growers on both sides of the Tas- man. One of the biggest impacts is that of consolidation. When the last joint confe- rence was held in Hamilton NZ. in 2001, there were over 120 Agaricus farms opera- ting in Australia and 14 in NZ; today, there are only 42 and 3 respectively; smaller players have fallen by the wayside and the larger growers have become bigger. One of the downsides has been that growers are more competitive, and more secretive. Hence the theme of the Conference, ‘He Ora Te Whakapiri - Stronger Together’. Geoff hoped that the Conference would encourage increased co-operation between growers in both countries. Nick Hill, Chief Executive of Tātaki Auck- land Unlimited, the cultural agency tasked with promoting the region as a world class place to live, work, visit and do business in, officially opened the Conference. An update on the regional business situation, was presented by Benjamin Picton from Rabo Bank. Covid has impacted both countries’ economies, especially the supply side; hostilities in the Ukraine and Middle East have resulted in more shocks.
Picton said consumer confidence and demand would increase in NZ before Australia.
Cultivation and composting The International Speaker Program opened with Arpád Mutsy, BioFungi CEO and his presentation ‘Various Quality KPIs of Com- posting’, zooming in live from Hungary. Weekly, BioFungi produces 1800 tons of Phase 3 Agaricus compost and 600 tons of Oyster mushroom substrate, 80% of the production being sold to growers in 10 countries. Arpad explained that good qua- lity compost requires good raw materials, a good team, understanding the compost MATRIX, that one parameter change influences the rest. He stressed the impor- tance of compost macro and micro mixing, optimum composting time, hygiene, that every yard is different with the need to build your own analysis data base; as for NIR, TVN (Total Volatile Nitrogen) is the most important indicator. Consultant Ray Samp, up next, gave a comprehensive paper on pinning for opti- mum harvesting. Efficient pin set control
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 9
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