The international trade in mushrooms is no longer growing. For fresh mushrooms, the ceiling is at approximately 500,000 tonnes. The international trade in tinned mushrooms is decreasing, from 600,000 tonnes ten years ago to about 450,000 tonnes now. The trade in frozen mushrooms is also stagnant. No figures are available for this product globally, but taking the export from EU countries, it will be 120,000 tonnes in total. On the fresh market, Poland in particular manifests itself, and this country is displacing other countries. Polish export is still growing. Last year, it concerned 220,000 tonnes, making Poland the largest exporter of fresh mushrooms globally. In ten years, Polish export doubled. The Netherlands cannot compete with Poland. The export of Dutch export is decreasing. The Netherlands is the second export country for fresh mushrooms globally. The export of Irish mushrooms is also decreasing.
China is still number one when it comes to the export of tinned mushrooms. However, Chinese export has been rapidly decreasing, from 600,000 to 450,000 tonnes in less than ten years. For tinned mushrooms, the Netherlands is the second export country as well, but they are far behind the Chinese. Dutch export has been fairly stable in size for years. Poland is also rising on this market. Polish export of tinned mushrooms has also doubled in just a few years. Germany and the US are the most important import countries for tinned mushrooms, closely followed by Russia and France.
UK largest importer fresh mushrooms
The most important importing country for the fresh product is the UK. After imports peaking at nearly 100,000 tonnes in that country in 2013 and 2014, volume has been slightly smaller in recent years. Germany is number two. Over the past year, import stabilised at a level of 70,000 tonnes, after continual growth. The US is number three with a record import of 46,000 tonnes last year. Belarus is number four. Other export countries of meaning for fresh mushrooms are Canada (mostly to the US), Ireland (mostly to the UK), and Belgium (mostly to the Netherlands). Belarus and Lithuania also export a lot, but that mostly concerns transit to the Russian market. Various countries show a nice increase in the import of fresh mushrooms, including the US, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, Bulgaria and Switzerland.
Available statistics for mushrooms tend to contradict each other. The same is true for import and export in the Netherlands. It is clear that cultivation in the Netherlands is scaling up, although it appears to have stopped doing so in 2016, according to figures from the CBS. Both the average size of companies harvesting manually and that of companies harvesting mechanically has decreased. According to the CBS, 300,000 tonnes of mushrooms were produced last year, practically the same as from 2011 to 2015. By now, the number of companies has decreased so much, that the closing or merger of one large company influences the figures. Last year, there were only 116 companies that grew mushrooms, in 2008, that number was larger by several hundreds. The number of companies harvesting mechanically only amounts to 24. These are of average size, almost 14,000 m2.
Cheaper and cheaper
One remarkable detail is that prices of fresh mushrooms are dropping in Dutch supermarkets. From 2000 to 2005, prices for a 250-gramme punnet fluctuated just below one euro, according to the CBS. In recent years, that was just 80 cent, even though average price levels went up by more than 30 cent in the 2000-2016 period. In that same period, fresh fruit went up by 50 per cent in price in shops, and fresh vegetables by 30 per cent on average.
The Dutch export of fresh mushrooms is decreasing. According to KCB figures, it dropped from 51,000 tonnes in 2015 to 44,000 tonnes last year. Considering other sources, it mostly concerns larger volumes. The CBS sticks to 72,000 tonnes, based on import data of countries the Netherlands supplies, volumes could even be bigger. Germany is an important buyer, In recent years, it concerned a volume of 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes, according to German import data (KCB: 15,000 tonnes). The UK is the second buyer with 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes annually (KCB: less than 10,000 tonnes). In recent years, about 15,000 tonnes have been shipped to Belgium (KCB: 1,500 tonnes). Lithuania and France are other countries buying large volumes.
Loss of Russian market levels off Polish exports
The Polish export of fresh mushrooms leveled off after the Russian market was lost, but didn’t completely disappear. In 2016, this concerned 220,000 tonnes. Export to Germany grew considerably in the past year, to an amount of 53,300 tonnes. The growth on the British market stood out more, with an increase of 30 per cent to 38,600 tonnes. Although according to British import figures, this would’ve been much less. In 2016, 25,000 tonnes of Polish mushrooms could be supplied to Russia via Belarus. During the peak, more than 40,000 tonnes were shipped to Russia. Poland is also starting to be an important player on the market of tinned and frozen mushrooms.
The Dutch production of mushrooms for industry, 200,000 tonnes, is more important than that of product for the fresh market, 100,000 tonnes. Most are processed into tinned mushrooms, but much are also meant for the frozen industry. International demand for tinned mushrooms in particular is decreasing. The export of Dutch product to Germany has dropped to below 30,000 tonnes in the past year. But on the other hand, they managed to export more tinned mushrooms to the US. In the past year, export to that country increased considerably, to almost 24,000 tonnes. Because of that, the Netherlands is by far the most important supplier on that market. Import from China and India has also practically disappeared. In 2008 almost 50,000 tonnes were imported from China.