After a rather subdued sales year, the winter season for cultivated mushrooms is now gradually picking up momentum. "This year's summer slump felt more pronounced than in the past ten years and also lasted a very long time," sums up Torsten Jonas, managing director of the Demeter mushroom farm Pilzgarten Helvesiek in Lower Saxony. "Ultimately, gourmet mushrooms are a luxury product. I also have the impression that inflation has only really sunk in this year. In the previous two years, it was still possible to cope with it, but this year there has been a decline in sales."
In addition to the cultivation facility, the modern site also houses its own substrate production facility called BioMycoTec GmbH. The two companies employ a total of around 65 people from 17 different countries (including Eastern Europe, South America, Thailand, and China). Jonas: "Around 50-60 percent of the substrates produced here are needed to cover our own requirements. In addition, we supply numerous organic farms in Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia. We are seeing increasing demand for good organic substrates, which is why we will continue to increase our substrate production in the coming year. Our customers particularly appreciate the performance of our substrates and their high degree of reproducibility. This makes our substrates easy to calculate with, which is ultimately one of the basic requirements for successful mushroom cultivation."
Torsten Jonas cultivates king oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, among others. His main customers include natural food retailers, selected restaurateurs, and other wholesalers. He continues to describe the gourmet mushroom sector as a "demand market" with king oyster mushrooms as the absolute bestseller.
Start of the peak season
Similar to mushroom cultivation, substrate production is also subject to seasonal fluctuations, Jonas continues. "Due to the lower demand for gourmet mushrooms in the summer, we also adjust our production to the decline in demand by reducing capacity utilization to 60–70 percent. However, a distinction must be made here: Shiitake mushrooms have a cycle time of 16 weeks or 4 months, so production is already scaled back in February/March. King oyster mushrooms only have a shelf life of six weeks, so we don't slow down production until later, in April/May." BioMycoTec GmbH produces a total of around ten different types of substrate, including unusual varieties such as pompon, velvet pioppini, and oyster mushrooms.
The cultivation business is also approaching its peak season: "In the run-up to Christmas, retailers usually plan additional promotions. After the turn of the year or at the beginning of January, there is typically a slight dip. Thereafter, business picks up again until the start of the asparagus season in April/May."
Insight into organic king oyster mushroom cultivation. Pilzzgarten GmbH exclusively cultivates gourmet mushrooms on sterile wood substrates. About 60 percent of total production consists of king oyster mushrooms.
Ever-present cost increases
The raw materials required for substrate production are currently available again in sufficient quantities. Jonas: "At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the price of sawdust nearly tripled. Raw material prices then gradually stabilized again, although we are still significantly above pre-war levels. Other operating expenses, such as energy and salaries, have also increased, and unfortunately, it is not possible to pass these cost increases on to the customer one-to-one. But necessity is the mother of invention: We have revised our internal processes and thereby increased operational efficiency."
For more information:
Torsten Jonas
Pilzgarten GmbH
Fabrikstraße 12
27389 Helvesiek
Tel (+49) 42 67 933-0
[email protected]
https://www.pilzgarten.de
https://www.biomycotec.de/
