It was a damp and dark  day near Lurgan on Friday 18th October, but there was a gleam of sunniness in the demeanour of Eamon Murray and Jelena Milos as they hosted the official opening of the Annaghmore Mushrooms super modern new pack-house.

Attendees were bussed into the mushroom firm's  premises to witness the official opening of the new £1 million investment in the company.

The expansion involved spending over £0.7m on technology to improve its cold chain supply, including the new high tech pack-house.

The investment was supported by grants of £286,000 from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and other support from Invest NI.

 Starting in the marquee set up for the event, guests donned the requisite anti-contamination outer wear, then tours were led out to  the mushroom farm and the new pack-house facility. Taking turns half of the assembled industry personnel and guests visited the growing sheds, while the other half took the pack-house tour.

Guests were shown the large growing sheds environment following the stages of mushroom production through all stages. All aspects of the growing cycle were covered and questions on output per week, and environmental controls and conditions, were answered. At one point John Conway of Conway services  led guests into one shed to demonstrate the new powerfogger 60 used to disinfect houses in a more economical fashion. 

Having toured the growing sheds, the party then went on to examine the processes in the pack-house. They were led into the new spotless facility, passing by the Café Portabello inside, and after some more hygiene procedures entered the packing area. It was a frenetic  scene of busy workers operating the packaging machinery and assembling orders in various packaging forms. All shapes and sizes of punnets and packages were in evidence, stacked and wrapped for immediate dispatch. The tour took in the palletizing area, the packing ,  labelling and grading areas; the storage area and the blast cooler rooms  - the entry point from the growing environment into the pack-house. The intricacies of the packaging and labelling were explained for the guests and finally they were shown into the  second chilled storage area, from where the fresh produce is dispatched all over the UK and Ireland.

After the extensive tour guests reassembled in the marquee to watch a formal plaque unveiling by David Small deputy secretary of DARD. He said: "It is tremendous to see a local company going from strength to strength and supplying not only to the local market but also across the UK."

Guests were then invited to sample some delicious mushroom lunch bites, prepared by the highly renowned Yellow Door  Restaurant event catering team.

Everyone at the opening was very impressed by both the new facility and the organisation of the event - the genial atmosphere on such a damp day raised the spirits. Eamon and Jelena and all the staff on farm and in the pack-house made the tour very agreeable.

The company said it had also increased its workforce from six to 16 – and also planned to take on another 10 staff.

Eamon Murray, who founded the business in 2006, said: "This investment is crucial in maintaining the quality and freshness of the product for longer, resulting in an extended shelf life.

""We are constantly investing in modern, efficient equipment and packaging and are committed to ongoing improvement as we grow our business in response to the growing demand for our mushrooms," he said.

There was also mention of further expansion to come in the future with the raising of all mushroom tunnels to the new larger shed size.