The editorial in the Mushroom Business magazine of October 2009 remarked on the difficulty of running a mushroom farm now in Holland.
The combined effects of falling prices and currency differentials of the Euro against Sterling and the Zloty were all mentioned.
Factors within the control of the grower were identified as offering the best solutions to survival.
Hammering out better energy contracts, hiring cheaper personnel (sometimes a false economy that one) and longer growing schedules.
To be sure it is a challenging time to be in any line of business, but the mushroom industry does seem to find itself buffeted by externalities and ever-changing technologies and migration patterns. Some Irish growers might be heartened to hear that others are getting it tough as well, for a change. A bit of Schadenfreude can go a long way. All signals seem to point to 2010 throwing up a more challenging environment for business, what with continued uncertainty over recession, new carbon taxes in the offing after Copenhagen, and energy prices potentially set to rocket.
All in all, that oft misattributed Spencerian phrase “survival of the fittest” will no doubt inform business discussions in the year ahead.
As Darwin interpreted the phrase: those that are better adapted for the immediate, local environment will survive; – for environment read economy.
