Strong growth continues for mushroom industry

The mushroom industry in Ireland is acknowledged to be one of the best in the world. It is the largest horticultural sector in Ireland and is worth more than €112 million, of which nearly 75 per cent is exported to Britain. It employs more than 3,200 people, mainly in Monaghan, Cavan and Tipperary, as well as Kildare, Meath and Carlow, contributing significantly to the economies of these areas.

The success of the mushroom industry has been attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of the key stakeholders: the growers, the compost suppliers, the marketers and the producer organisation, Commercial Mushroom Producers (CMP). The support it has received from government agencies, such as Teagasc and Bord Bia, has also contributed to its success.

"Mushroom businesses operate in a highly competitive market place and survival depends on ensuring the highest quality produce at the best price possible, produced in a sustainable manner," says Helen Grogan of Teagasc's horticultural development department. "This requires constant attention to detail to ensure quality and environmental stewardship, as well as continuous innovation to ensure efficiencies across the board."

The Irish mushroom industry has been successful in transforming itself into a world-class performer by continually striving for excellence and efficiency, she says.

"Monaghan Mushrooms, one of the oldest mushroom businesses in Ireland, has become one of the world's largest, with operations not only in Ireland but also in Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Canada. Another Irish leader is spawn producer Sylvan. Spawn is the mushroom culture from which mushrooms are grown and the Sylvan product is the spawn of choice for many growers around the world."

Teagasc has played a leading role in supporting the growth of the Irish mushroom industry over the past 40 years. The agency has provided research, advice and training for mushroom-growers and has overseen the industry’s transformation from a small-scale, labour-intensive activity that supplemented farm incomes in the 1980s to the modern large-scale, labour-efficient standalone businesses today, often with upward of 20 growing units per farm.

Harvesting

An example of this relates to harvesting, one of the biggest single costs of a mushroom farm. “The Irish mushroom-harvesting workforce is highly skilled and is among the best in the world due in part to the highly successful mushroom harvester training programme developed by Teagasc and CMP, which is now standard practice within the industry,” says Grogan. “The training programme is estimated to increase picking rates by over 60 per cent, resulting in improved mushroom quality and productivity of the crop, while also increasing profit margins and wages.”

Teagasc has also supported the industry through its applied and strategic mushroom research programme over the past 50 years. The R&D programme has covered aspects of farm safety, disease control, waste recycling and mushroom quality. In recent years, Teagasc’s research programme has focused on integrated pest management (IPM) by developing up-to-date pest and disease management tools.

This has been driven by recent EU legislation (the sustainable use of pesticides directive 2009/128/EC) that aims to ensure a better environment for all and high quality, traceable food produce for consumers.

"Agricultural and horticultural businesses are entering a stage where integrated pest management will become embedded in the day-to-day running of the business," Grogan says. "Teagasc was successful in securing competitive EU funding worth €2.5 million in 2012 for a project entitled 'MushTV – Solutions for the Mushroom Industry to Emerging Disease Threats' (www.mushtv.eu) which has IPM at its core; the results will be rolled out across Europe in the coming months."

Genome sequencing

As with many agricultural and horticultural commodities, the genetics and genome sequencing of commercially important organisms has opened up a new world of possibilities in terms of R&D and innovation.

The genome of Agaricus bisporus, the Latin name for the mushroom, was published in 2012 and scientists around the world are beginning to explore its potential to advance the industry to the next level. Teagasc, in collaboration with Sligo Institute of Technology, will embark on research this year to understand compost utilisation at the genomic level in order to increase the productivity of the mushroom substrate.

“About 40 per cent of the substrate is unutilised at the end of the crop, so if the mechanisms controlling compost utilisation can be understood, there is potential to increase yields significantly by selective breeding of strains with better compost-utilisation characteristics,” Grogan says.

In another area Teagasc, in collaboration with the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, will look at characterising the genetics of Agaricus's response to infection with fungal viruses in order to investigate possible ways of reducing their impact on the crop, as fungal viruses have caused the industry considerable losses in recent years.

The private sector has also invested in research to the advantage of the Irish mushroom sector.

"In recent years Monaghan Mushrooms has put a substantial research programme in place in areas of mushroom production and biotechnology, and this will make a major contribution to development of the sector. Custom Compost, a major compost producer based in Wexford, and Sylvan Ireland also conduct their own research to improve and ensure the quality of their products, thereby also ensuring that the Irish mushroom industry is world class."

Teagasc plans to invest this year in newmushroom-growing rooms and glasshouses at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Ashtown, west Dublin which will provide independent research support to the industry and provide a platform for collaborative international projects.

“It is essential to foster close links between researchers and industry to ensure the continued success of the mushroom industry,” Grogan says. “The MushTV consortium of industry and research representatives has provided a firm basis for building and maintaining collaborative links across Europe into the future as well as maintaining valuable research capacity in Europe in all the major research areas of interest to the industry. The future is bright; the future is mushrooms.”