Canada: Morel mushroom prices could drop 50%
The territory is expecting its biggest-ever morel mushroom harvest in the burn areas left behind by last year’s devastating forest fire season.
People across the NWT, Canada and beyond have been enticed by the prospect of earning hundreds of dollars each day, simply by gathering the mushrooms – a delicacy at restaurants worldwide – and selling them to roadside buyers.
Northern communities have been shown examples in which people earned tens of thousands of dollars in past seasons, based on prices at around $14 per pound.
However, biologist and mushroom harvesting specialist Joachim Obst now warns that this summer’s crop may be nothing like as lucrative.
“Prices were pretty high during the last three years,” Obst told residents during Tuesday’s lunchtime session at Yellowknife’s Northern United Place.
“This year, I was called up by buyers and they told me, ‘We are not going to pay $14 this year because world prices are expected to drop by as much as, maybe, 50 per cent. They expect a huge crop this year, not only in the NWT, but there were also a couple of fires in southern BC. It could be that, this year, you only see offers between $6.50 and $8 per pound of fresh morel mushrooms.”
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