For many industries, the year 2020 was a year of constant turmoil. The Spring lockdown and its associated restrictions in particular posed major challenges. Agriculture also struggled massively with all kinds of the changes during the year. First, farms had to fear for the permits of their seasonal workers and then there was the closure of the catering trade, which for many is an important part of sales. Although German mushroom producers suffered particularly from these consequences of the pandemic, the mushroom industry in this country was able to report a pleasing production of 85,100 t of mushrooms in 2020.
This is around 6,200 t more than in 2019 and a significant increase compared to the years 2014 to 2018. Common mushrooms still account for the majority of this, at 81,000 t. With 54%, white mushrooms were slightly ahead of brown mushrooms. The organic share in mushroom production was 15% in 2020.
Encouraging growth rates for noble mushrooms
Noble mushrooms also increased in numbers in the crisis year. While 3,900 t were produced in 2019, this volume increased to 4,100 t in 2020. 95% of the edible mushrooms in Germany are coming from organic production; in the state of Hesse this share even went up to 98%.
The star of the edible mushrooms was the king trumpet mushroom with 2,400 t, followed by the shiitake (850 t), the oyster mushroom (750 t) and finally the other edible mushroom varieties.
Source: BDC
