Growing Mushrooms Commercially — Risks and Opportunities

P eople have harvested mushrooms from the wild for thousands of years for food and medicines. Of the estimated 1.5 million species of fungi, about 10,000 produce the fruiting bodies we call mushrooms. While commercial harvesting of wild mushrooms continues today, most of the world’s supply comes from commercial mushroom growers. The Chinese first cultivated shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushrooms around 1100 AD, with domestication efforts beginning centuries earlier. White button mushrooms (Agaricus spp.), most familiar to Americans and Europeans, were first domesticated in France in 1650. Commercial production began in the United States in the 1880s. Agaricus is the leading mushroom crop worldwide and accounted for 99 percent of the 1997 United States’ mushroom production. Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp.) were more recently domesticated, and now rank second in world production. Shiitake mushrooms, which are very popular in Asian cultures, rank third. Many other edible mushrooms, such as straw and wood ear mushrooms, are gaining in popularity. Roughly 300 mushroom species are edible, but only 30 have been domesticated and 10 are grown commercially. Button, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms make up about 70 percent of the world’s production (table 1). During the past 30 years, mushroom production worldwide increased twenty-fold, with much of that increase occurring in the 1980s and 1990s. Increased demand for specialty mushrooms (everything besides Agaricus) has been particularly strong. Asian countries continue to dominate world production and consumption, however, consumption in the United States has increased sharply in recent years, providing potential opportunities for mushroom growers. Mushroom production in the United States has traditionally centered in Pennsylvania, which produces nearly half the nation’s button mushrooms. California and Florida are the second and third leading producers, with limited production in 27 other states. Large-scale growers with established, year-round markets dominate commercial mushroom production. In 1997, 7 percent of United States mushroom farms supplied 20 million pounds or more each, or 38 percent percent of total U.S. production. In contrast, 36 percent of mushroom farms produced less than one million pounds per year. Even established growers are challenged with recent imports of canned Agaricus from China, Chile, India, and Indonesia. In the face of this competition, the prospects for new Agaricus growers are poor. The number of button mushroom growers in the United States has decreased steadily, from 357 in 1987 to 153 in 1997. Growing Mushrooms Commercially — Risks and Opportunities