SPAWN
commercialising mycelium as an alternative for leather, construction material or packaging, for example, is progressing slower than many had expected.
‘We literally want to become a
spawning ground in every sense’
OurCelia as a spawning ground At a certain moment, Jan contacted Ecovative and expressed his willingness to participate. However, the direction of these meetings increasingly shifted towards a complete takeover, which was finalised in September. He sees Ecovative as an interesting company with plenty of potential, but; “Compared to them, we look beyond the horizon, consider the long term value, the ROI. Furthermore, as a family business, we prefer not to enter partnerships with private equity, we can take our time. We want to create a ‘legacy’, to secure the survival of the sector together - hence the name OURcelia - although we also have to be profitable of course.” According to Klerken, owning the spawn factory can contribute to
40 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
continuity and stability in the sector, a common interest, where innovation is paramount - something that, according to Klerken, is given too little priority - and all chain partners make a return. Commitment and ownership are the key. Ies: “We will have to prove ourselves, win back and gain trust, convince everyone and distinguish ourselves from the competition in the spawn market. We are going to expand our strain maintenance programme, our spawn lines and our programme at our trial farms and invest in improving the performance of speed spawn. But we also plan to explore using supplements to improve yields and develop new strains.” Eric adds: “We literally want to become a ‘spawning ground’ in every sense, with a team that has built up a great deal of expertise. We know what we want and we’ve learned what not to do.” It’s clear that everyone is on the same page for a new chapter in the continuing Klerken legacy. “We’ve only just started.”
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