“We want to be the first you call if you need help,” says Michal Babilas, a representative of Sylvan, a spawn supplier, Poland. (You can call or write Sylvan at poland@sylvanpolska.pl, tel. +48 61 894 25 12).
Sylvan’s idea – to help mushroom farmers as much as possible with technological and organizational issues, thus strengthening the brand – is working out perfectly.
One such initiative was the “Sylvan Growing Forum” held on June 19, 2024 at the “Chabrowy” Conference and Banquet Center in Lukow, Poland. A year ago, Sylvan held a meeting with oyster mushroom producers here, and now it has brought together Polish mushroom growers, as well as a representative of Bio Fungi from Hungary and Baltic Champ from Lithuania. As Paulius Pilipavicius of Lithuania joked: “I feel that with our presence here, it’s becoming an international event,” he says to UMDIS.
From the good news shared at the Forum – Dutch mushroom processor factories are starting to reopen. Equally interesting was the statistical information from the technological area: it turns out that in Poland the average harvesting rate is 22 kg/hour. This is a pretty good result, but there is plenty of room for improvement through the implementation of international practices. For example, in September there will be an International Training on Harvest Organization organized by the UMDIS Agency – in Poland, at the mushroom farm of Lukasz Laziuk, with the trainer from Canada who consults the largest mushroom farms in the world and was the head of the harvesting department of six mushroom farms in Canada. For more information, please call +48 577 253 132.
There was a very interesting presentation on control of nematodes by Adam Polisiakiewicz (you don’t have to bring the nematodes in until the 9th day after applying the casing!). Also the presentations on the starting a room – by Wojciech Konieczny, and the harvest presentartion – by Maciej Grzeszek were interesting. All three consultants can be reached with questions via Sylvan.
However, what piqued the participants’ interest the most was a story by Tomasz Kuczmaszewski of Sylvan Australia about mushroom cultivation in Australia. The biggest surprise was to learn that a snake or spider can sometimes be found in a mushroom or composting facility. That’s right – UMDIS Agency visited Australia a few years ago and there, instead of the typical posters asking people to wash their hands, we see “Watch out for the snake” posters.
On the topic of mushroom sales in Australia, some interesting facts have been revealed. “In Australia, each manufacturer has different boxes, so in the supermarket, the shopper has the ability to distinguish, choose and remember which manufacturer is better for them.”
Since the beginning of this year, there has been a rare situation in Australia where mushroom growers have been able to reach an agreement with supermarkets to reduce margins. The price of chicken was $11 and mushrooms $16, which was a big problem until supermarkets could be persuaded to lower the price of mushrooms for January-March. What’s more, it was extended until June – the price was $11 for six months instead of $16! According to Tomasz Kuczmaszewski, there weren’t even enough mushrooms – that’s how much demand was affected.
“Unfortunately, I can’t imagine that something like this could happen between mushroom growers and supermarkets in Poland,” he says. – mushroom grower Miroslaw Jachimowicz shares his opinion with UMDIS. Other mushroom growers support him in this.
According to Tomasz Kuczmaszewski, there are 12 composting plants and 50 mushroom farms in Australia. The compost had previously been actively imported, such as from CNC in the Netherlands. This became more expensive during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, because of territorial conflicts at sea, it’s even more expensive, so Australians are trying to manage on their own.
They use a heavy casing there. Yields on the white mushroom are 36-38 kg/m², while the brown Tuscan from Sylvan yields 27 kg/m². Now one producer has opened a large production of exotic mushrooms, planning to push out mushroom imports from Korea and other Asian countries.
The budget for mushroom promotion in Australia is 4-5 million Australian dollars a year.
Despite this, a very interesting presentation was given by coaching expert Maciej Grzeszczyk (that’s a different person from the well-known consultant Maciej Grzeszek). He talked about the importance of asking questions of employees, not just giving orders. For example, a question like this, “And what solutions do you see for this issue?” Another interesting fact was that praise reaches a person’s head after 17 seconds of speaking, while criticism – after 1 second, so we have to be very careful with it.
The UMDIS Mushroom Agency thanks Sylvan for the invitation.
