THAILAND
mune mixed with coconut milk in a dish called roasted split gill mushroom curry.
Local farmers use sawdust as the base of mushroom substrate in plastic bags.
Compose substrate and preparation to make spawn for cultivation of the popular straw mushrooms.
Straw and oyster mushrooms are
the most popular species in the Thai kitchen.
is used for domestic consumption and only 3% is exported to other countries, Cambodia being the main foreign market (highest export value). Despite the large domestic production level, some species of mushrooms are imported especially dried mushroom. Dried white jelly mushroom (Tremella spp.) is solely imported from China at an amount of 2,500 ton, repre- senting a value of 22 million EUR. Next to this an amount of approximately 9,700 tons of fresh mushrooms (i.e. button mushrooms, shiitake mushroom, shimeji mushroom and enoki mushroom), representing a value of 13 million EUR are imported from China, Malasia and Japan in 2023.
Thai mushroom menu! In different parts of Thailand, Thai mushroom menus differ from each other. Throughout the entire country, straw mushroom and oyster mushrooms are the most popular species for cooking such as Tom Yum (spicy lemongrass soup), Tom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Coconut Soup) and Stir-fried Mushrooms. L. squarrosu- lus has a special texture being a bit tough and these mushrooms are very popular in the Northeastern part of the country for cooking Thai spicy mushroom soup that is mixed with bamboo shoot and yanang soup. The southern part of the country traditionally cooks S. com-
44 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
Research and preservation The mushrooms commercially grown in Thailand each have different environmental require- ments that must be met if maximum production is to be achieved. Local farmers still have pro- blems with infections caused especially by green mold mushroom pathogen (Trichoderma spp. and Metarhizium spp.) probably resulting from the fact that mushroom houses are located near other agricultural crops in which these fungal species are applied for biological control of plant diseases and insects. Their crops are also affected by insect pests such as fly, caterpillar of butterfly or moths and mites. Furthermore, the growers encounter problems with strain fatigue in the mushroom strains; yields are progressi- vely lowered when the same strain is grown for a long time. Next to this knowledge and farm management to cultivate mushrooms could be improved. Thai mushroom growers, usually do not have mushrooms as their only crop. They grow multiple horticultural crops as solely focusing on mushrooms does not provide enough income. The Thailand Mushroom Culture Collection (TMCC) was established in 1993 as part of the Department of Agriculture. It has several important functions. Foremost it is involved in supporting and developing the mushroom industry in Thailand. It maintains a collection of mushrooms strains that are in use for com- mercial cultivation. An important service to the mushroom industry is the distribution of mother cultures to mushroom producing companies, allowing them to produce their own spawn. Next to this TMCC is involved in breeding new hybrid strains of the cultivated species. Furthermore, it performs research to improve current cultivation practices and it develops cultivation technologies for new spe- cies. The knowledge obtained from this research is transferred to various professionals in the mushroom industry. A second important function is the preservation of endangered mushroom species. It maintains a collection of strains that have been deposited by various scientific institute. To be able to do so, TMCC develops methods for preservation of mushroom strains, consider for preservation quality control and checking for viability, purity, stability and productivity. TMCC currently pre- serves germplasm of 40 mushroom species and manages a database for utilization of these strains. This database contains information on mushroom morphology and performance in cultivation (yield, quality, speed of substrate colonization, etc.).
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