Iran is primarily known in the West for it strict interpretation of Islamic law, implemented after the revolution in 1979. During the past few years a gradual relaxation has become apparent. Although the increased freedom of the past seven years has lead to mushroom cultivation on a larger scale, the country's isolated position remains an inhibiting factor.

Expansion of mushroom growing activities in Iran is heavily restricted, as importing the necessary materials and equipment into the country is difficult. The government's standpoint is that everything is widely available in Iran. If you want to import goods you have to be extremely convincing and prove that the goods you need are not already available in Iran or cannot be manufactured there. In the region surrounding the capital Teheran there are six larger-scale mushroom farms which make their own compost. Production is between 3,000 to 5,000 kilos of mushrooms per week. There are also a number of smaller operations in the Teheran area. Farms are also found in Dezful, in southern Iran close to the border with Iraq, and near the city of Ardabil, which lies high in the mountains in the north near the Azerbaijan border.  

Climate 

Mushroom growers are faced with very diverse climatic conditions. Growers in southern Iran have problems with summer temperatures, which can be as high as 45 to 55 degrees Celsius, while growers in the north have problems in the winter caused by snow and frost. Temperatures here can drop as low as 20 to 25 degrees below zero! Iran has one advantage: very low humidity. On most mushroom farms, the climate unit simply consists of a water cooler, where air is guided through a fine water mist. One of the advantages of this method is that the air is cooled and humidified simultaneously. At the same time the grower prevents dust and any dry and wet bubble or green moulds entering the growing rooms. Cheap petroleum keeps energy costs low, so winter heating presents no problem.

Spawn

The limited import in Iran means that all the raw materials need to be produced or mixed on the actual growing facility. The first stage is making the spawn. There is a small spawn laboratory in Teheran, but spawn is also produced on the various mushroom growing farms. A lot of stroma occurs on the farms, but luckily far less in the laboratory. The spawn is certainly not A15-like strains, but most likely to be U3-like varieties. During the summer, Agaricus bitorquis is also produced, due to the hot climate.

Composting

Compost is still produced using traditional outdoor methods. Raw materials for compost are straw, gypsum and many different sources of nitrogen such as ureum, chicken manure, cottonseeds and soya. Horse manure is not available in Iran.

On the first day the straw is mixed with chicken manure and any other nitrogen sources. This mixture is moistened for the first few days. After having been turned several times, this so-called ‘flat heap’ is stacked into bigger piles. These piles are turned every two to three days. Some farms still do this manually, while elsewhere composters have developed their own compost turning machinery. This means that the compost is not a highly homogeneous mixture, which causes problems at a later stage of cultivation. 

The first phase takes place completely outdoors. Some companies continue the heap phase under cover, while others also do this in the open air. The compost is then filled manually into concrete tunnels. Pasteurisation and conditioning are usually manually controlled processes. After pasteurisation the compost is spread onto a table and mixed with the spawn. In this special table is an opening with a bag underneath which catches the compost that falls through the hole. Mushrooms are cultivated in bags in Iran. Bags differ greatly, but they contain between 15 to 20 kilos of spawned compost. Nine bags are used per square metre.

After the bags have been filled they are closed and left in special incubation rooms where the mycelium can grow through the compost. Following a period of about two weeks, the bags are removed from the incubation rooms and placed in the growing rooms. The difference between incubation rooms and growing rooms is the number of bags per room. In an incubation room the bags are placed much closer together.

Cultivation

When the bags have been moved the compost is covered by a layer of casing soil, which is mixed by the grower. The raw materials consist of calcium carbonate and peat. The quality of the peat originating from northern Iran is relatively good. To dig peat, however, a permit from the government is required. This is quite difficult to obtain, as the government wants to protect the environment. After the casing soil has been applied the bags are closed again. CACing (addition of spawn to casing) is not used on the casing soil. After another five to seven days the bag are opened again. The casing soil is now fully covered with fine mycelium. At this stage 1 to 4 litres of water is sprinkled per square meter, then the surface is ruffled manually. This ruffling resemble levelling more than true ruffling down to the compost level. Blow down takes place after another two or three days.

The first mushrooms can be harvested ten to fourteen days after blow down. Mushrooms are picked six days per week. The flushes are not controlled - the mushrooms are picked as and when they appear. In Iran Saturdays and Sundays are normal working days- Friday is the day of rest.

The yield from the first flush varies from 6 to 10 kilos per square metre. Yields drop significantly after the first flush, just as in the Netherlands after the second flush. This drop in production immediately after the first flush is mainly caused by the casing soil. As explained previously, water is given during mycelium growth in the casing soil just before ruffling. This means that the already fine casing soil is covered by too much mycelium. No water is sprinkled on the mushrooms, so after the first flush the casing soil becomes too dehydrated and hard. Three to four flushes can be harvested with a total yield of 10 to 15 kilos per square metre.

Hygiene

In countries just starting to commercially produce mushrooms, total levels of hygiene are often problematic. Many countries frequently fail to understand the message that good hygiene is essential in order to grow quality mushrooms. Iran is a positive exception, as the country was reasonably westernised before the revolution and used to applying western standards. A big obstacle on Iranian farms is that all activities, from spawn production to mushroom packing, take place in a single location. The doors of pasteurisation tunnels and growing rooms open onto the same corridor. Spawning is done in the same room as where the mushrooms are packed. Not exactly ideal conditions to prevent the occurrence of dry and wet bubble and green moulds, and certainly not for the dieback virus.

Market situation

Mushroom production in Iran is at a very low level. The produce is sold on local markets and exported to a limited extent to Saudi-Arabia and Oman. Mushroom quality is also inferior, which allows the marketing of Agaricus bitorquis. Iranian mushroom consumers do not (yet) demand closed white mushrooms. As nearly all the mushrooms can be sold fresh, irrespective of quality, hardly any mushrooms are conserved. Production has nearly doubled in the past two years and there is still a call for mushrooms. There is room for a reasonable level of growth in the future, but focussed on the domestic market in Iran, which has approximately 70 million inhabitants. If just a tiny fraction of the population starts eating more mushrooms, production will not be able to keep apace.