As we started to pull away from the shadow of the pandemic, January began with a look at the prospects for the mushroom sector going into 2023 from Bord Bia. The prognosis was challenging. Costs were one of the main factors with producers facing cost increases in packaging, transport energy, and labour. Cost and availability of growing compost was regarded as a major challenge - and remains so. The proportion of brown mushroom sold was predicted to grow.
There was news of the Ecovative takeover of Lambert Spawn Europa. The cost of living crisis continued to dominate news pages, with European, UK and Irish food prices going into overdrive. Oil prices were bumping along at just under $80 a barrel. Over the pond there were new appointments at Monterey Mushrooms, and to the US Mushroom Council also.
Fast forward to February and the health benefits of the lion's mane mushroom were being heralded - some top Australian research was showing that the exotic mushroom boosts nerve regrowth and memory function. The Dutch Mushroom days were just 70 days out, with reminders to get your vote in for the Ambassador of the Mushroom Industry awards.
Bio-habitats for the Moon and Mars featured, the idea being that they will be grown from mycelium - the future has arrived it seems. The television show The Last of Us was getting a lot of airtime in the media - with the idea of a deadly killer-zombie fungus underlying the plot.The resurgence of bird flu was something that pinged on the radar throughout the year - it seems like it will do this year too. Sterling was down at €1.13.
In March news from the University of Stirling of an innovative research project looking at how edible fungi could be used to effect carbon capture - i.e. removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The idea also promotes less deforestation, while enhancing carbon sequestering, a win-win in ecological terms. There was also the surprising item about PCs being powered by mushrooms from The University of West of England. True it's unlikely that we’ll see a mushroom motherboard on the market anytime soon, but the exploratory science behind the fungal function is amazing.
Grocery price inflation was topping 16 percent, Virus X was on the agenda again - it has never really gone away, and farm worker welfare was being addressed by UK supermarkets. Sudden swings in weather were a theme with the Met Office predicting that the UK would see more extreme rainfall events - thus it has transpired, sadly. Stalker noted the emergence of the fear of phosphogeddon in the media, as well as the idea of AI wiping us out. Ever cheery! And with a newly discovered parasitic fungus which preys on spiders in Brazil, the month’s news was not uplifting.
Advancing into April fair, it was all about prices and costs. The Ulster Fry index prices were soaring due to the food-price inflation. Mushrooms were one of the least inflated prices on the index, having risen only 6.7 percent, while milk prices had leapt by an eye-watering 43 percent. Teagasc produced a report on input price inflation in the mushroom sector showing what factors were driving the rising costs. Everyone was feeling the squeeze.
More detail was flowing in re stands and exhibitors at the upcoming Mushroom Days event. Local companies were getting ready for the top expo in the mushroom world calendar.
There was news from E-nema on the company's continuing successful mission to control flies in the mushroom industry. With over a quarter of a century involved in the industry the company is going from strength to strength.
Gene-edited food was on the agenda for England after a change in the law allowed for the commercial development of it there. Meanwhile a Teagasc report indicated that more horticultural food producers might cease trading in Ireland as input costs erode producer margins.
The previous month was confirmed as the wettest on record by Met Eireann - this year would see many records set on the weather front.
Moving swiftly into May with some good weather at last, the month of the Mushroom Days had landed, after a four year hiatus. There were 110 exhibitors at the event and nearly five thousand visitors attended the show. There was a strong Irish presence at the event with exhibitors from both north and south in prime locations throughout the exhibition hall.The event was deemed a spectacular success by media and organisers. The seminal awards of the Ambassador of the Mushroom Industry was also heralded with several joint winners. Also in May the GEPC launched a new campaign co-funded by the EU. The €5 million promo campaign was launched in nine countries including Ireland. There was news of how El Nino would affect weather patterns globally - wet and wetter was the theme. Oil prices were slumping in May and sterling was getting marginally stronger against all currencies. A report in May indicated mushroom sales in Australia were booming for health, environmental and cost reasons. There was a slight spanner about to be thrown in the mushroom market over there a few months later.
Gently jumping into June the mushroom theme at the Chelsea Flower Show was mentioned - the sights and sounds of the fungal world were well explored in the Great Pavilion exhibit and garden spaces. Intimations of recessionary trends in both the eurozone and UK economies was gathering pace. June saw the hottest days of the year recorded after a blast of gloriously hot weather bathed the country for the month. Some buzzy drinks were highlighted - with functional fungal ingredients - the craze for all things mushroomy continued unabated. Mushrooms as a solution to global warming was a theme emerging throughout the year with another study from the university of Cape Town showing how mycorrhizal fungi could absorb up to one third of fossil fuel emissions around the globe.
Meanwhile NASA was looking at recycling carbon dioxide for protein shakes and mimicking photosynthesis to create mushrooms in their Deep Space Food Challenge. A Dutch company were offering a new mushroom coffin which bio-degrades in 45 days - an eco way to go, for sure!
July in Ireland was like a damp squib following the sunny June - farmers were having problems with early harvests due to the rainfall. However in Europe and the US heatwaves abounded - a more dire state of affairs - wildfires were a constant hazard this summer. In the industry the northern sector in the shape of the NIMGA was voicing concerns that growers were under threat due to the end of free movement post-Brexit. NIMGA chair Frank Donnelly said that efforts to recruit local workers had not produced sufficient numbers to meet demand. In dublin meanwhile a bill to establish the office of the new agri-food regulator was signed into law. The independent office would promote and enforce the principles of fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain according to the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue. The Minister also announced in July the launch of two BAR funded schemes to improve efficiencies in the mushroom sector - to the tune of €6 million. Mushroom Machine were investing in new R&D facilities to help scale up production for the delivery of their products worldwide.
After the hottest July ever recorded worldwide, and the wettest ever recorded in Ireland, August got off to a damp start too. A solar project planned in Carbury in Kildare was hoping to supply electricity to the mushroom sector in 2024. More sunlight in the summer months would no doubt help that project. In Australia a poisoning event prompted the Australian Mushroom Growers Association to issue a statement that mushrooms are safe to eat. The AMGA were not wrong, as the fallout from the poisonings did dent mushroom sales in the country. The peak of the inflation curve seemed to have been reached as figures coming in showed all indices of the rate of price rises falling slightly. BASF were hailing the mycotechnology in their new beauty range - pore tightening mushroom enhanced products no less. The storm season started early with Ireland being buffeted by Betty. There was also news of educational scholarships being awarded by Monterey Mushrooms in California and news of a mycoprotein producer raising €40 million for a fake meat start up operating out of Scotland and The Netherlands.
Schlepping into September the issue of labour and recruitment was exercising minds again with IFA Mushroom Chair Mark Walsh saying that the industry was facing a cliff edge situation in relation to work permits and lack of workers. One quote stood out: “ Mushroom farming is not an easy business and it needs support.” Irish agri-businesses in general were facing a staffing challenge according to a report by Ifac.
New customs and controls at the UK / Ireland border, due to come into effect from January 31st 2024, were set out by the UK government in the Border Target Operating Model document. All Irish businesses exporting certain goods to GB need to apprise themselves of the new rules before that deadline.
The threat of A.I. was amply illustrated by the alert over an A.I. authored book which was available on Amazon. The book or books in question are giving some bad advice on what mushrooms can be safely foraged in the wild. Seems like the A.I. has been at the magic mushrooms and has suffered some hallucinatory events. The benefits of therapeutic psilocybin were explored in the issue, with medical trials continuing into treatments for depression, anxiety, PTSD and more using the compound.
Straw was scarce following the wet summer months, but September saw some proper sunshine and a bit of an Indian summer ensued.
October saw a shout out for a funding support package worth €2.3 million in Ireland to help the horticulture sector. Somehow though white mushroom production was not included and IFA fruit and Veg Chair Niall McCormack was not impressed. “The fact that the important white mushroom production sector and the vast majority of Irish grown strawberries appear to be excluded from this support scheme needs to be rectified,”McCormack said.
Meanwhile the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) were now accepting applications under the Horticulture Crisis Fund (HCF).
There was a memorandum of understanding to supply a robotic mushroom harvesting solution for the Drawer System by Mycionics, a robotic technology firm, and Christiaens Group, supplier of farms and equipment to the global mushroom industry. The push towards automation in the industry seemed stronger than ever, not surprising given the labour difficulties being experienced across the global industry.
Quorn was finding that the lustre of fake meat was waning as it posted losses of over£15 million due to a slump in demand. In high demand though was mushroom themed jewellery - some lovely examples of which were pictured. The carbon-negative mushroom production system from the University of Stirling team was featured again, the team were now working with truffle producers Mycorrhizal Systems Ltd to trial the edible mushroom production system. The French safety agency Anses was warning of increased mushroom poisonings due to faulty identification apps being used by foragers - truly the A.I. was out to get us!
While in Nottinghamshire a foraging rights ban was being invoked to deter excessive harvesting of wild mushrooms in Wollaton Hall and Deer Park in the county. The right to collect wild plants and mushrooms was first enshrined in law in England with the 1217 Charter of the Forest. Under common law it is not an offence to pick one of the ‘four F’s’ - fruit , foliage, fungi or flowers - if they are growing wild , are for personal use and are not a protected species.
Nearing the end of the year in November JFM completed a big project at the Smithy Mushrooms facility in Lancashire. Custom compost were investing in new environmental technology to improve things at their facility outside Gorey.
The weather news was continuing, with things getting wetter and getting warmer - the year was well on course to be the hottest on record. Mushrooms are very much flavour of the month with food pushes in the media, with new fresh produce champions appearing like Professor Tim Spector, and news of books in the offing like Molds, Mushrooms and Medicines. Functional mushrooms were being lauded and a wee bit lambasted in equal measure in different items. However the general scientific thinking does seem to support the benefits of mushroom consumption for good health. Smart Packaging from Poland was featured and there was $7 million in grants awarded to Penn State researchers to develop protection for mushroom crops. Inflation rates were continuing to creep slowly downward, and the Mushroom Machine Company started on their world tour of exhibiting on farms their new Gamechanger and Gamechanger Pro machines. There was happy news in the arrival of a bouncing baby girl for JFM’s Leanne.
There was also the sad news of the death of Sean McArdle of Reen Compost.
Diving into the dark and mild month of December, the European Mushroom Growers Promo Group (GEPC) produced a study showing interest in mushrooms in Ireland was on the rise. 58 percent of Irish millennial respondents indicated that they were purchasing mushrooms “frequently”. Demand is strong. The ongoing peat issue in the country was to the fore again with the Oireachtas Ag Committee out and about on local farms seeing the effects of the peat supply issue. The innovation and imagination evident on mushroom farms was highlighted by members. Sterling was on the rise up to €1.17 in early December, and oil was sinking to $72 a barrel. The formal establishment of the new agri-food business Regulator’s Office in Dublin happened mid-month, with Mr Joe Healy as Chairperson of the Board An Rialálaí Agraibhia (Agri Food Regulator).
The genomes of over a hundred magic mushrooms had been sequenced by University of Queensland researchers. The Canadian company Techbrew rebranded as 4AG Robotics, a name to watch out for this year as the move to automation picks up pace. There were suggestions too for Christmas stocking fillers, mushroom themed gifts abounded.
All in all 2023 was a year rocked by economic turbulence, climate disruption, with ongoing war and political and military upheavals engulfing regions throughout the world. It can only be hoped that 2024 will bring more positives after the tumult of this year.
