Adrian Golovatei is one of the most cheerful and smiley mushroom producer that we ever have met. He is the owner of the mushroom farm Ciupercaria Golo near Mures, Romania. “Ciupercaria” means «mushroom» in Romanian, and “Golo” is the beginning of Adrian`s surname. The farm grows white button mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. Among 30 existing mushroom farms in this country – Adrian`s farm is medium in size – much smaller than two largest and much bigger than the smallest.-See, if a small farm as our did not expand – we would die. That is the reality now for Romania, – tells UMDIS agency Adrian with a smile, eating his soup in a beautiful restaurant near his farm.

He deals with mushrooms for 15 years and devotes most of his life and energy to his work.

-Mushrooms take all my time, no time to travel or even to find a wife, – jokes Adrian.

He started mushroom business together with his farther, who suddenly died in April a year ago of Covid. From that time Adrian manages everything by himself.

In 2008 Adrian with his farther put in operation first growing room – it was for oyster mushrooms.

-Why mushrooms? Easy! We had construction business – and as you probably know construction business freezes in winter. So, we thought what extra to do in this season – and found mushrooms which perfectly grow in winter, – explains Adrian.

Definitely yes. Speaking about oyster mushrooms – lots of mushroom producers, and Adrian among them, load rooms to have those mushrooms mostly in cold seasons, when the price and demand are better, and there is no necessity to have strong cooling units to deal with hot summer temperatures. So speaking about seasonality that was a perfect business for Adrian`s family – vice versa to the construction business they had.

In 2012 year the first button mushroom growing room started to work in Ciupercaria Golo.

Now Adrian has 8 growing rooms. For button mushrooms we see enough modern rooms, aluminum shelving, control computers. Oyster mushrooms` rooms are also comparable to those we see while visiting the largest European producers like Pilze Nagy in Hungary, and others. The technologist for button mushrooms and oyster mushrooms is the same guy – Katona Istvan.

The yield which the farm usually has for button mushrooms is 32%. From the first flash they harvest 20-21 kg per m2. Most often just two flashes are harvested. Six pickers are employed on the farm.

Notably: 95% of mushrooms produced on Ciupercaria Golo are sold by Adrian to the supermarkets and with labels. That is not the same story as in many countries where supermarkets mostly work with the largest producers – and smaller ones sell mostly to wholesalers.

-As you know, we have just two large mushroom producers here in Romania. And supermarket chains never can rely on just one or two suppliers of a product. So smaller producers of mushrooms are also welcomed, – explains to UMDIS Adrian Golovatei.

UMDIS Mushroom Information Agency visits farms in Europe and the world.