Brown mushrooms seem to be enjoying increasing popularity among consumers. "Brown mushrooms continue to increase in the market, while the marketing of white mushrooms also remains rather tense in terms of price. Although the price of browns is stable, sales have once again increased. This tendency has existed for several years, but it continues. In our production we are now at 60 percent brown and 40 percent white mushrooms, last year it was the other way around. At least as far as end customers are concerned. In the catering trade, on the other hand, white mushrooms are still the preferred choice," says Dieter Dömges, joint managing director of Pilzhof Nettetal.
In sales, the brown mushroom is about 20 percent more expensive compared to the white, he said. "This is simply due to the product and is due to the lower net yield of brown mushrooms and the higher compost price," Dömges described. Overall, he says 2023 started well for cultivated mushrooms, as expected. "While we no longer have big increases like we did in Corona days, all segments have returned to a healthy level, so we have seen a slight increase in sales compared to the pre-Corona year of 2019. This is mainly due to higher costs and prices rather than volumes."
According to Dömges, production costs will initially remain at a high level. "We were lucky now that we still had existing energy contracts. Our electricity contract has now expired and is at a high level, and we will have to close our current gas contract on Jan. 1." After the last price adjustment at the end of February, there will be no further increase for the time being, says the mushroom merchant. "The pain threshold has now been reached."
Insight into mushroom cultivation during the company visit in 2019.
Chanterelles and exotics
The classic summer doldrums are partly made up for by wild mushrooms, especially chanterelles. "As expected, the season has started quite well, with availability of goods throughout, despite the Russia embargo. Surprisingly, no bottlenecks have been apparent so far. At the beginning of the season, there were corresponding entry prices of 13-14 euros compared to 19-20 euros last year."
The company's product range is rounded off with mushroom exotics. "Oyster mushrooms are way out in front with about 80 percent, while shiitake and herb mushrooms share the remaining 20 percent. We expected that demand for shiitake would increase, not least due to promotional activities at the association level. However, from our point of view, there is no sign of an increase in demand," concludes Dömges.
© Pilzhof NettetalDieter Dömges, Mareen & Frank Goertz are together at the helm of the Nettetal mushroom cultivation and trading company. In addition to the main and production site in Nettetal, they operate a stand sales called GoChamp at Fresh Park Venlo.
Test run with open trays
The medium-sized mushroom company is also concerned with the issue of sustainable packaging. "We did a test run with open trays in some food retail stores a few months ago. However, customers did not take to them at all, which is why we immediately switched back to the common packaging. With this solution, we would not only have set a benchmark in terms of sustainability, but could also have increased our margins once again by reducing the effort involved in production, i.e. in weighing and packaging. However, the result shows us that this measure has not yet been accepted by customers."
Further information:
Dieter Dömges
Berg 17a
41334 Nettetal
Telefon: +49 2153 971 778
Fax: +49 2153 971 779
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.pilzhof-nettetal.de
www.gochamp.nl
