Even with a notice from the Avondale, PA-based American Mushroom Institute warning of tight availability on mushrooms for the next six to 10 weeks, one grower says it’s slowly building its inventory back up to try and keep ahead of the demand.
Last week, Rachel Roberts, president of the Institute said that some retailers are facing shortages thanks to the fall out of COVID-19.
However, in Fillmore, UT, Brenda Barney of Mountain View Mushrooms says it has good supplies of mushrooms right now. “So far, we’re still ahead of demand for mushrooms. We have plenty, however I have had a couple of farms call me looking for product,” says Barney.
The impact of foodservice
For Mountain View, most of its business is from foodservice, an industry that’s been hit hard by the COVID-19 restaurant closures. “So, we’re about 50 percent of normal,” says Barney. She notes that following the March shut down, its sales were reduced to 30 percent of normal and plantings are now at about 50 percent of what it would be generally at this time of year. “Now we’re just adding a few more beds each week to ramp back up, hoping for at least 75 percent of normal through the summer,” she says.
She says they still have extra white mushrooms and they are about even on demand for cremini and portabella mushrooms right now. “We have more coming on that we’ll be picking in a few weeks to stay ahead of demand,” she says. She does note that most of Mountain View’s business was on white mushrooms but now demand has increased significantly for brown mushrooms and not as much on white.
That said, Barney notes that she hasn’t seen any changes on pricing of mushrooms. “We haven’t had any price increases so far, we’re just playing it by ear,” she says.
For more information:
Brenda Barney
Mountain View Mushrooms
Tel: +1 (435) 767-0050
brenda@mountainviewmushrooms.com
www.mountainviewmushrooms.com