In February the South African Mushroom Farmers’ Association (SAMFA) hosted their annual conference in Port Elizabeth on the beautiful South Eastern coast. The proceedings started off with two days of lectures at the Tsitsikamma Conference Centre and a farm visit nearby. From there delegates had the choice to spend another day visiting two more mushroom facilities situated further along the coast. For that part everyone traveled by bus along the so called Garden Route via Plettenberg Bay to George.

It was with excitement when we arrived at the ‘Welcome Cocktail Party’ on Monday. It was great to see all the familiar faces again. Some new acquaintances were made and we shared the good ‘vibe’ of the evening. In total between fifty and sixty delegates from all parts of the country and abroad attended the congress. Ross Richardson, Chairman of SAMFA, welcomed everybody on Tuesday.

Lectures

Peter Woad, chairman of the British MGA, opened the speeches by focusing in on the British Industry. It was a great insight concerning the Superstore Giants and the incredible buying power they possess to potentially cripple an industry. Quality definitely seems to be the order of the day as this is what the ‘big’ guys are after. The message that remained clear was certainly of not ‘lowering’ the overall appeal of the mushroom as this could damage its standing into the future.

Second on the stand was Harry Hesen (Sylvan Netherlands), who presented an informative session on evaporation and growing trends in Holland. He reminded us of how important it is to know the characteristics of not merely humidity as an entity, but also the actual evaporation and evaporative qualities of the air within and around the growing environment. Hesen went on to add that the good evaporative control would largely contribute to successful pin-sets during aeration and would so too, also add to beneficial crop staggering which in turn would benefit harvesting and quality. These will all add to the final product packed.    

After lunch it was straight back to business and first up on the podium was Prof. Lise Korsten and her mushroom research team which operates from the University of Pretoria. Over the past two years they have done varied research on casing soils and pathogens.They shared their studies and findings on the relationship between mycelial interaction of Agaricus and Mycogone.

Dr. Petra Labuschagne presented her update on different casing mediums. Petra has over the years contributed immensely to the Mushroom Industry with her work on finding various alternatives and supplements to casing. To date no perfect substitute for casing has been found, but huge inroads have been made into the use of added supplementary fibre. Broken down and then weathered wattle bark fibre is now being used on farms around the country and is proving to have positive effects.

Closing off the day’s proceedings was Riana of Riana Greenblo Communications. She presented a report on work they had done with regard to promotion. Great achievements were made into the newly tapped ‘African’ sector of the market.

It was then on to the SAMFA Annual General Meeting. Many topics from research and development to the new budgets were discussed. Industry statistics of the previous year are promising, showing an increase in production of 2.8%  which corresponds with an increase in fresh mushroom sales of 2.4 %.

Wednesday Thed Vestjens of Walkro briefed us on the latest composting trends in and around Europe. Most of it concerned the huge indoor type facilities. It was amazing to see the sheer size of these. It was also of interest to see the extent to which the Dutch go to producing compost which has little or no effect on the environment. There is very little room for mistakes with an extremely short process, so up to date info is crucial to creating an efficient and consistent substrate.

The local peat suppliers Duffuel and Middleground took up the podium next with them both sharing views of the industry and mining techniques and environmental impact issues.

All the overseas speakers and Mick Surridge (Scatoplus, Australia) paneled a discussion, chaired by Mike Walton, Sylvan UK. Mick shared some of his experiences of the AMGA and how the industry dug itself out from the claws of the large retailing giants and maintained a strong stand in the market place.

Prof Matthew Lester, an economist from Rhodes University focused on ‘How our money was doing?’

Farm visits

After lunch it was off to our first farm walk at the Denny Port Elizabeth Farm. It is a tray facility which gets in compost from their Cape Town operation once a week. It has a capacity of approximately 9 tons/week and services predominantly the PE and East London region. Afterward, we headed back to the Keurbooms River Lodge near Plettenberg Bay, a great venue with lovely views over the estuary, and well suited for sundowners. That evening a good old ‘braai’ was enjoyed by all.

A reasonably early start in the morning saw us heading off for our next farm visit on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay; Forest Farm Mushrooms. This neatly tucked away facility is a ‘bag’ farm which also purchases compost at present. They will, in the very near future, be making their own substrate in their newly constructed composting facility.

The following visit was to the Denny George Farm, a tray facility and the smallest of the Denny group of farms. They also receive compost from their Cape Town farm on a weekly basis. The compost is phase II and already spawned when it arrives on site. They produce nearly 5 ton per week, and supply the local surrounding areas. A final lunch was at the berry farm adjacent to the mushroom farm. After delicious hamburgers all round and strawberry milkshakes to die for, it was time to say our goodbyes.