Mushrooms: Transtasman conference ponders ways to make them more appealing

The industry is looking at ways to make mushrooms more appealing. Photo / Unsplash, Sébastien Marchand

By Monique Steele of RNZ

The mushroom sector is hoping to spawn a fungi revival to get more of the healthy food items on to kitchen tables to boost grower returns.

Mushroom growers from New Zealand and Australia have come together in Auckland this week to tackle issues springing up for the shrinking sector.

Around 175 delegates from Australasia and other experts from abroad were part of the four-day event, taking on topics like composting, robots picking mushrooms and how to unlock growth for the sector.

Conference chairman Geoff Martin said New Zealand grew 250 tonnes of white and brown mushrooms each week and a further 1200 tonnes were grown in Australia.

He said over time, the industry had consolidated – with fewer people and greater use of technology.

“All mushrooms these days are actually grown indoors; very carefully, climate-controlled and very definitive temperature ranges that you can grow the mushrooms in.

“Also, the humidity levels, the carbon dioxide level – it’s very, very sophisticated these days.”

However, it had not been an easy road for commercial mushroom growers in recent years, he said.

“Obviously, technology is driving change, but the one thing that both farms on either side of the Tasman are facing, they face the same issues.

“Raw materials, input costs, energy costs, issues with labour for picking, getting people to actually work in our industry and, of course, the main one is getting a good farm gate return for the mushrooms.”

Martin said back in 2001 when they held the last joint Aussie-Kiwi conference in Hamilton, New Zealand had 13 commercial mushroom farms and Australia 100.

But now, that had reduced to only around three in Aotearoa and 42 in Australia.

Wendy Hubbard, who is the consumer insights manager for Australia’s industry body Horticulture Innovation, spoke at the event on Thursday.

She said softening food sales across fresh produce generally in Australia had been challenging for the sector – so the industry group wanted to boost sales of the common white and brown buttons which have been dropping recently.

“Being able to grow and supply mushrooms is one thing, but it’s also important to understand what consumers want, to be able to actually grow the category.

“We know that amongst Australians, around half of them buy mushrooms; mushrooms are a staple.

“But we are seeing that those households are buying slightly less volume and slightly less often.”

Hubbard said there were opportunities for the sector to target the “light buyers” who buy the fungi infrequently and also families, to introduce mushrooms to children while they were young.

“To encourage non-buyers, I would be suggesting simple tricks and tips for using mushrooms, aimed at beginners and also family-friendly recipes to bring in younger generations.

“Then to encourage frequency, I’d be suggesting dialling up the versatility of mushrooms in recipes and focusing also on their freshness, their quality and their local origin because we know that these are things that resonate with consumers.”

Today marks the final day of the conference which will include a site visit to fully integrated commercial producer Meadow Mushrooms.

- RNZ