their own spawn was processed in a delivery of substrate bags. The difference between the substrates inoculated with the newly produced spawn, and those containing the traditionally produced spawn was shocking.
The first ones were soon covered in a nice white layer, the latter stayed a vague white and often produced a yellowish fluid, a sign of bacterial contamination.
Labour intensive composting At Kigali Farms, growing white mushrooms is a labour-intensive process. As I already mentio- ned, this is an advantage, as it ensures income security for the local population. On arrival at the composting site, you are cheerfully greeted by a crowd of Rwandans, busy pushing wheel- barrows of compost from the fermentation tun- nel to the pasteurisation tunnel. Further along, smiling colleagues are weighing straw in a very original way (see Focus on middle pages): the straw is placed on a weighing scale attached to a stick held in the air by two people. The next team then takes the weighed batch of straw to the following stage of the process, where a col- league is ready waiting with a spray to wet the straw. After being mixing with chicken manure and other ingredients, the material goes to an open bunker for fermentation. After the end of phase I, the material is taken by wheelbarrows to a closed pasteurisation bunker on the other side of the site. Laurent has studied the hygiene aspect care- fully: the growing rooms are at a safe 500 metres distance from the composting site, and the staff are kept strictly separate. It felts like a good combination of regulations and psychology. The cultivation site is completely fenced, and you
have to show ID to the watchman at the entrance to the site. A lot of attention is paid to the clothing and equipment which are con- stantly washed, polished and scrubbed, and there is no access to the site without suitable clothing. These measures mean the risk of cross-contamination is almost non-existent.
Mushrooms for Kenya I was accompanied on my tour by the Growing Manager, who knew perfectly well what he was talking about and immediately gave me a refres- her course on hygiene. The nine growing rooms lead onto a meticulously clean central corridor. The equally clean and organised packing area is also located there, with the cooling unit next door with the packed mushrooms. The spawned compost is supplied in bags of 16 kg from the composting site. The bags are placed on alumi- nium shelves to incubate and start producing the fruiting bodies. Local peat mixed with chalk acts as casing. During the extensive tour of the growing rooms, I didn't see a single fly or insect, nor any form of infection. If you realise that they harvest three flushes, that's quite an achievement! The average yield is in the region of 20 kg per square metre, and Laurent's ambi- tion is to push up that figure. Almost five tons of mushrooms are harvested weekly with the intention to increase this to six.
Kigali Farms serves the local Rwandan market with mushrooms, but the majority of production is exported to Kenya, where demand is much higher. Laurent has invested in a refrigerated trailer and sales staff - with positive results. Sales are steadily increasing. In fact, business is booming so much that a second production site is being considered.
The inoculators disinfect their hands by
singeing them over a Bunsen burner.
The nine Agaricus bisporus growing units are kept perfectly clean.
White button cultivation on compstbags of 16 kg.
Average yield: 20 kg/m2
.
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
