The fourth edition of the Mushroom Festival in £osice in Eastern Poland took place September 16th. It was organized by Wokas, Polish producer of peat, in cooperation with compost producer Unikost and The Polish Mushroom Society. Dr Szudyga, the Polish authority on mushroom cultivation, began his seminar at the fair showing a feeling of optimism, as Polish mushrooms up their potential.

£osice is located in Eastern Poland, the second mushroom production area in the country. The exhibition reflected a growing interest in the mushroom industry; more participants and visitors than before, attractive stands of more than thirty mushroom-associated companies and producers, and eventually a grand banquet for 280 guests, celebrating the success of Wokas certified with HACCP and ISO 9001:2000 this year.

As Dr Szudyga stated, the recent statistics show a growing tendency in export of Polish fresh mushrooms. When comparing the figures, an increase in export can be noticed from 32 480 tons in the first part of 2003 to nearly 43 000 tons one year later, which is only 4000 tons less than that of the Netherlands, the major player on the European market.

Surprisingly, the export to Russia rose only by around 400 tons in 2004 whereas to countries as Germany it increased by nearly 1500 tons, to Holland by 4000, Sweden by 800, and France and Great Britain by 1000 tons, respectively. By still maintaining the production cost 40% lower that Western European counterparts Poland is on the way to become the biggest supplier of fresh mushrooms in Europe. The question obviously arises if this is not a short term situation.

Threats and opportunities

Facing the re-organisation of the Irish mushroom industry and the threat of China in a form of cheap yet decent quality mushrooms, constant quest for better quality and efficient organization is a must. In his analysis of the Irish mushroom industry, Dr Szudyga gave some hints the need of shared logistics centers, expanded refrigerating facilities, extensive promotion of the whole industry, frequent courses and learning programs as well as pre-sale contracts.

These points were stressed by Mr Nawrot, president of Nawrot Company, major Polish grower/trader. Nawrot is also concerned by Chinese oversupply, but more by disorganization of the industry, and he expressed a call for a more efficient cooperation between Polish producers and traders. He is about to complete one of some major logistic centres in Western Poland this year, and believes to take a considerable part in building a strong profile of Polish mushrooms.

Jerzy Oziemski from Bioplant B³onie Company analysed the mushroom market in Italy, which is in regress at the moment (the production capacity decreased from 120.000 tons to 100.000 tons this year, while the consumption is stable). Some concluded that the Italian market could be of interest to the Polish industry.

Finally, Dr. Fryder and Dr. Sakson talked about recent research results and the role of peat in intensive mushroom cultivation, respectively.

After the annual ‘Pieczary’ awards were given to people who are particularly devoted to mushroom production and the whole mushroom industry in Poland, Dr. Szudyga thanked everyone and stressed the need for maintaining high quality in mushroom cultivation.