Second CEOs/Presidents Group meeting in Cape Town

The meeting was attended by Bart Minor (American Mushroom Council), Doug Schirripa (Australian Mushroom Growers Association), Ross Richardson (South African Mushroom Farmers Association), Mark Wach (American Mushroom Institute), Luc Goedhart (ZLTO – Dutch Mushroom Growers Association),  Chris Alonzo (American Mushroom Institute), Glenn Martin (Mushrooms Canada), Krystian Szudyga (Polish Mushroom Growers Association). ISMS President, Greg Seymour from the Australian Mushroom Growers Association was the Chairman.
Apologies were received from Ignace Deroo (Belgium), Eberhard Peters (Germany), Laura Phelps (American Mushroom Institute), Andrew Middlebrook (UK Mushroom Bureau), Mr Li Shuping (Chinese Edible Fungi Association).

Greg Seymour welcomed everyone to the truly global meeting of CEOs and Presidents of national mushroom associations. He reported on an encouraging increase in networking amongst the group since the previous meeting in Den Bosch in 2006. He particularly highlighted the importance of information sharing on key issues which are affecting the mushroom industries worldwide.

International Facilitation
Seymour indicated that ISMS had moved on from merely producing a quarterly newsletter and organising congresses at four yearly intervals, to an organisation that now has a valuable global facilitation role in many key areas. He indicated that this role was likely to increase in the coming years, as the rationalization of research resources and funding continued to contract globally.
The issue of identifying, funding and managing global projects was discussed. Seymour reported that the CEO/Presidents group could have an important role in the establishment and operation of future collaborative/ cooperative projects and communication of outcomes to members.
There were already indications that the Dutch, Canadian, South African, American and Australian industry groups are prepared to provide funding on a ‘project-by-project’ basis. The CSIRO Mushrooms & Health research database will provide useful strategic guidance of what needed to be done and the areas to focus on for the best pay-off with respect to global health projects.
CEOs/Presidents were asked to determine the preparedness of their individual organisations to be involved in Group Global Initiatives and to report back to the chairman.

Global Projects
The meeting heard about the ISMS Mushrooms and Health Global Initiative project which used a collaborative funding model. The American, Australian and Canadadian industries contributed to the initial cost of the project and provided the management structure and resources for the project.
Subsequently, the UK has invested funds and the European countries in GEPC have also pledged funding that will keep the project going for the next three years. The funding and project operations are managed by AMGA on behalf of the investors to ensure the contractual obligations for each investor are met.
The ISMS Mushrooms & Health Global Initiative is producing a quarterly bulletin on issues/activities associated with the project. The bulletin is distributed to all ISMS corporate members for them to send on to all their members. A database of information on the mushrooms and health will also be made available to all participating countries later in the year.
The International Mushroom Disease Diagnostic Service project operates under a different funding and management model. It has a cooperative funding model that involves individual research groups in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, The Netherlands, the United States and Ireland. They are locally funded and work independently on different aspects of disease diagnosis utilising DNA technology but agree to share their findings and pool the outputs.
The groups meet every couple of years to formally report progress in their work (Australia in 2006 and Cape Town in 2008) and there is ongoing communication between researchers in the interim.
Based on the premise that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the component parts’ this initiative is operating under the ISMS umbrella, and aims to produce a Mushroom Disease Diagnostic Service that will be available under licence to mushroom industries worldwide.
Seymour reported that opportunities exist for other global projects, provided interested countries are prepared to contribute funds and support their researchers. The CEO/Presidents group has a very important role to play in identifying strategic issues that are likely to impact on the mushroom industry globally and then suggest projects that can be undertaken to overcome the problems. The CEO/Presidents group also has the important role of communicating this information to their industries and being the catalyst for collectively funding these projects

Mushrooms and Health
The group elected Bart Minor to be the Group’s ambassador for mushrooms and health project work and to keep all members fully informed of developments by email. Bart indicated research dealing with vitamin D enrichment in Agaricus mushrooms through the use of ultra-violet (UV) light is currently occurring in the United States, Canada, The Netherlands and Australia. He summarised US activities, indicating that the mushroom industry could emulate the soy industry which developed health information based on the benefits of soy.
Articles about Vitamin D deficiencies are being published in many countries with children, elderly people and various ethnic groups being particularly susceptible. There is a push to increase Vitamin D intake but it is found in relatively few foods (liver, fish, cod liver oil) and fortified products such as milk. The only source of vitamin D in a non-animal fresh food product is mushrooms.
Availability of mushrooms with enhanced levels of Vitamin D has the potential to increase sales of the category. In the US, Monterey Mushrooms are already preparing to market a sliced, UV-treated mushroom under the SunBella brand. Dole brand mushrooms are also about to bring a Vitamin D enhanced product onto the market in June.
Greg Seymour reported that human clinical trials were about to commence at the City of Hope Hospital in California to investigate the impact of including mushrooms in the diet daily on post menopausal breast cancer and reoccurrence of prostate cancers.

Formalized ISMS Working Group for CEOs/Presidents
There was unanimous support for formalisation of the CEO/Presidents Group within the structure of ISMS. Luc Goedart (Dutch Mushroom Growers Association) was elected to be convenor of the group and initiate communications The groups initial activities will be to have teleconferences approximately every six months, along with regular emails, to update progress in projects and report on developments.
Members of the Group would probably meet face-to-face at major events such as the North American Mushroom Conference, Dutch Mushroom Days, etc. Luc Goedhart will organise a teleconference to be held sometime in November, 2008 (exact details to be notified).
Greg Seymour closed the meeting at 16.35 hrs.

More on the 17th ISMS in Mushroom Business nr. 29.
Photo series on the 17th ISMS elsewhere on this site.
More on the ISMS global ambitions and plans in Mushroom Business nr. 28.