Unveiling Japanese Mushroom Insights

After a long 2023, we finally rung in the New Year here in Japan. The story in the mushroom industry is that growers are in a challenging situation around the world and signals are mixed. On one hand, demand for small-scale, locally grown gourmet mushroom varieties, as is the focus of our publication, the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal, has been strong. In much of Europe and North America, I generally hear that consumers are very into exotic mushroom varieties, both as meat alternatives and for health benefits. Lion’s mane in particular is booming because of its perceived cognitive benefits, and more growers are showing an interest in maitake as well.

Exotics however, are a small sector of the industry, accounting for about 5% or less of sales varying by region. Looking at the mushroom industry as a whole, things are a lot less rosy because mushroom consumption in the United States, Australia and even Europe is dropping compared to pre-pandemic levels. Agaricus growers account for the lion’s share of the mushroom farming sector, and they have been suffering from a couple of miserable years in a row and the strain is starting to take its toll on the industry.

The unavailability/soaring prices of peat for casing, unreasonable organic certifying challenges (which often require farms to certify that all straw used in compost is from organic crops, information that supply networks aren’t even equipped to provide), as well as rising labor and soaring energy costs have hit farms hard. At the same time persistent infectious pressures have increased crop losses, and in Western Europe and Australia, consumer goods have been hit hard by inflation and people are increasingly cutting back on their purchases or downgrading to simpler and more inexpensive staples.

Even exotic mushrooms have taken a hit, especially in markets without easy access to sawdust or where sawdust is prohibitively expensive. A lack of infrastructure in place, including over-reliance on low-quality imported fruiting logs and the lack of local or regional suppliers for most goods, has created a persistent cycle wherein exotic mushroom farmers struggle to expand beyond small scale local farms.

Automation, especially, could save many exotic mushroom farms a lot of operational stress finding works in addition to the big reductions in labor cost, yet to be able to afford large-scale automation and efficient, mid-sized or larger farms requires a baseline level of consumption and funds that in many cases simply doesn’t exist. Western countries too have been achingly slow to get on board with subsidies and grants. Simply put, neither Japan or China would have a fraction of the inexpensive and large-scale mushroom farming operations that they have had the government not promoted the industry as a rural development and agricultural byproduct recycling system.

In both Japan and China, the government underwrote 0% interest long-term loans, and even gave grants to help farms expand or modernize. A lot of farms in North America and Western Europe could expand and build more efficient facilities, giving consumers cheaper domestic options of many mushroom varieties, with only a small fraction of the subsidies and grants afforded to other big agricultural sectors such as grain, corn, dairy, and soy.

The fact remains that even in the exotic mushroom sector, money is tight and farmers are struggling between the high cost of inputs and the limited willingness of both retailers and consumers to increase their prices. While the JEMJ launched as a paid subscription service with additional benefits (as detailed on this site) in March 2023, the price and the relative newness of our publication as well as how niche the market is, made expanding our subscriber base a slow and gradual process.

As Chief Editor I still feel satisfied with what we accomplished as a new publication with a very niche reader base and feedback from readers and subscribers alike has been overwhelmingly positive. However, our reach is not as broad as we would like it to be or want it to be. Too many readers have expressed interest, but hesitate due to the price tag and also the existence of multiple other industry publications, some paid, some free.

Ultimately, our goal is to promote Japanese farming techniques for exotic mushroom farming and how to apply and localize these systems in a variety of contexts. Not only that, but we want to promote exotic mushrooms more generally, and push for greater consumption of mushrooms and healthy local food networks. To more seamlessly integrate all the elements of our business and enable more users to connect with our bounty of information, we’ve decided to revamp the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal into a free open access resource.

While we are still looking to relaunch a premium subscription service with additional features in the future, our short-term goal is now to connect to more farmers. We are exploring a variety of possible set-ups, and hope to launch our new version in time for the North American Mushroom Conference at the end of February. That way all that is needed is a registered account and farmers can read translated academic work on mushroom farming, accounts of Japanese mushroom farms of all scales, discussions of recipes, health marketing, mushroom-based processed foods, and more.

Even with our focus on Japanese systems, I feel our work is of vital importance to the exotic mushroom sector. Japan represents a mature industry, one with well-established and scientifically sound best-practices (due to extensive public-private partnerships with government and university research organizations working together with farmers). Too often I look at Western sources for exotic mushroom farming only to find people researching stuff Japanese farms figured out a decade ago (like which wavelength of LED light is most effective to use in incubation and when).

Even worse, there’s a lot of information out there that is both perfectly free and completely wrong or decades out of date. What we do is bring a strict editorial process, and provide balanced coverage on the multiple different aspects of the industry, from both practical and academic perspectives. The fact is, if you want to grow high quality shiitake, oyster mushrooms, eryngii (king oyster), maitake, nameko, enoki, shimeji or any of a number of non-Agaricus mushroom varieties, Japan is probably the best example to study in the world. Japan, as a developed country, has labor costs that, while lower are still comparable to the labor situation in Western markets. In addition land is generally limited because of the mountainous topography and population density, which has encouraged compact farms.

Japanese systems are designed for narrow profit margins, high energy costs, limited labor availability, and compact spaces, on top of long-term durability (as is emblematic of other blue chip Japanese manufacturers like Honda or Toyota). This makes for a natural fit, I feel, with the market conditions faced by farmers in the EU and North American markets, and similarly in Australia and New Zealand.

But regardless of whether readers are actively using Japanese equipment and materials, we offer and plan to continue offering expansive and generally applicable, well-vetted information about mushroom farming. We will continue translating and hosting articles on new sources of substrate, calcium supplementation, pH management, and general incubation advice. I hope our work covering Japanese farms also offers insights into practical management of farms, and that growers can take inspiration from mushroom-based food products in Japan.

Out of necessity, most farms are learning as they go, and using a hybrid system made of what’s available and what works. As long as the fundamental biology of the organism is constant, our work will hold great value to farmers using a wide variety of systems. The result is that our publication is a reliable go-to source of general information on exotic mushroom farming. I still believe that by learning together, and networking together, the exotic mushroom sector and the mushroom industry at large can shake off the few difficult years and come out on the other side larger, stronger, and more sustainable. And for that reason, I will continue working just as hard as ever as an editor as we become free-access. I hope for everyone’s continued support and understanding.

Let’s work towards a better 2024,

Saturday, September 23 marks the autumn equinox and the start of the astronomical autumn. For mushroom farmers around the world, autumn marks the start of the busy season. Nowhere is this more intense in Japan, where both prices and demand for mushrooms shoot up between October and coast through to around the end of January. There is a scientific basis for human cravings for rich, savory foods and increased appetites during autumn?what the Japanese call shokuyoku no aki or “autumn appetite.” The reduced UVB radiation and shorter hours impact serotonin levels, which leads to increased appetite according to the theory.

Whether real or not, autumn is also the natural season for most wild mushrooms and it is no wonder that for cultures across the world this means that traditional foods for autumn often feature mushrooms. Cooler temps also mean people without home A/C (an experience that this writer, living in Japan can personally attest), are willing to turn on the hot stove for an hour or more at a time, cooking big hearty meals at home. We are pleased to release the latest edition of the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal in time for the start of autumn. The digital issue is also available here: Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal (jemj.jp)

The cover theme of the latest issue is nameko (Pholiota adioposa), with an introduction from American Mushroom Institute President Rachel Roberts on the American exotics sector, a discussion of ergothioneine that concludes my health marketing series, and a farm profile of one of Japan’s only lion’s mane mushroom farms. We will wrap up 2023 with the 4th issue of the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal in December.

While “Japanese” is in our name, our project is an English-language journal covering everything to do with exotic mushroom farming, but grounded in the Japanese growing systems that excel in growing high quality but affordable exotic mushrooms of all varieties. 2023 has been an extremely busy year for us, launching as a subscription service, getting our website running, and preparing for the Dutch Mushroom Days industry event in May. 2023 is already shaping up to be another banner year for the mushroom industry, and we hope our already global subscriber base grows even more diverse over the remaining few months.

I’m thrilled to once again be featured in one of the mushroom industry’s premier publications, the American Mushroom Institute’s Mushroom News. The July issue covering exotic mushroom varieties is the second opportunity I’ve had to discuss bottle cultivation systems. Reading about the last round of enoki-related recalls in the United States led me to rewrite an earlier article I wrote about the Japanese enoki-based condiment nametake for the 2023 Spring issue of the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal.

I love pitching enoki because it’s such a high-value product and useful way to recycle agricultural waste flows into nutritious mushrooms and useful agricultural materials such as soil conditioners and animal feeds. While the typical button mushrooms, either white or brown, that you see in supermarket aisles still dominate the market, the exotic market is seeing red-hot growth of 30% a year and little sign of tapering off. The American Mushroom Institute has done a very good job at reaching out to exotic mushroom farmers in recent years, and I think the AMI represents the changing mindset of the industry.

Whereas I think, a lot of the big players in the mushroom industry who grow Agaricus varieties (button mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, and portabellas are all Agaricus varieties), used to have a view that exotic mushrooms were just a niche for random folks growing a small quantity of shiitake for restaurant use and gourmet markets, more are now coming around to the wide range of taste, textures, and aromas offered by a number of commercially cultivated exotic mushroom species. More critically, I think the wider industry has realized that the health and culinary benefits of many exotic mushroom species and the push for more sustainable agricultural practices (including reduced meat consumption), represent a huge new market.

A lot of big mushroom farms in Western countries, outside the biggest Agaricus farmers, are still behind the times too, compared to where the Japanese are, and where South Korea and China have built their industries up to. The Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal was, in fact, founded based on the concern that local farmers of all scales in the West risked being outflanked by imports and regional expansions by various big mushroom growers from East Asia. The purpose of our journal is to provide good, vetted information and a network to help support small and mid-sized growers especially. We also want to get good-detailed descriptions of how the Japanese system works out there to help large producers make informed investment decisions as well.

I think a diverse market with a strong local base is simply the most sustainable system. Apart from strengthening regional foodways, diverse production also spreads the economic benefits and helps recycle various agricultural waste flows more efficiently. I look forward to future collaborations with the American Mushroom Institute, and hope to continue to expand our reach here at the Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal.

Please check out the American Mushroom Institute - Mushroom News website for subscription information or be on the look out for your July issue to catch my article there.

See the Spring issue for the original article: Japanese Exotic Mushroom Journal (jemj.jp)

Europe has a long mushroom tradition. Collecting and pickling wild mushrooms is particularly popular in Eastern Europe, especially porcini (Boletus) mushrooms and chanterelles. Even today, most fresh wild mushrooms come onto the market from Eastern European countries. The production of mushrooms on an industrial scale started in the 1950s with the button mushroom. Around 180,000t/year of mushrooms are currently produced in Europe. The leading mushroom producing countries are the Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

The cultivation of other mushrooms started in the 1980s with oyster mushrooms, which quickly gained popularity. Italy was Europe's largest producer of oyster mushrooms at one point, with more than 30,000t/year, but was then passed up by Spain in the 2000s.

Commercial cultivation of shiitake also started in the 1980s. From the mid-1990s, growers began adding other exotics, especially king oyster mushrooms, (also called eringii). From the 2000s, exports of king oyster mushrooms from South Korea to Europe increased rapidly. The exports were fueled by a subsidy program from the South Korean government to support the mushroom industry there. In 2020, the annual exports to Europe were almost 8000t/year.

In the meantime, mushroom varieties such as shiitake, king oyster and other oyster mushrooms, which were once considered exotics, have arrived in the mainstream. These varieties were initially offered mainly at farmer markets and in organic retail stores, but today the large supermarket chains have also become aware of these specialties. Even if the white button mushroom is still much more dominant on the market in terms of quantity, exotics now represent an important sector of the industry.

Currently there are not enough sterilized wood based substrates on the market to meet the demand of all mushroom growers. However, in recent years large plants have been built in Holland and Switzerland. The market will continue to grow in the future and the hope is that there will be sufficient regional substrates to support this growth. It is ecologically unacceptable to import substrates from distant countries by sea freight. The ideal system converts the different local agricultural waste streams into substrates and then into mushrooms.

In contrast to vegetable growing, where e.g. 1 ton of tomato seedlings can yield 8-12 tons of tomatoes somewhere else, mushroom cultivation is exactly the opposite. Around 5 tons of substrate must be shipped over long distances so 1 ton of mushrooms can be harvested. Rising transport costs will continue to provide arguments for producing substrates locally in the future.

This trend is reinforced by the desire of many to be more careful with the earth's resources, which has fueled the belief that the production of meat is unsustainable. Among other things, this leads to an increasing number of people who want to eat vegan or at least vegetarian. Here the choice of mushroom is increasingly falling on the wood decaying varieties. This is because of, on the one hand, the health-promoting effects of a wide variety of ingredients as described in this Journal, but also because, unlike the production of button mushrooms, no animal manure from intensive animal husbandry, such as like horse manure and dry chicken manure, are used to produce these mushrooms. From this point of view exotic varieties are the only true vegan mushrooms.

At this year's MushroomDays industry event in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, the mood in the field of exotics was consistently positive. There have never been so many exhibitors from the exotic sector. In addition to the large substrate manufacturer CNC Exotics, two other new substrate manufacturers from Europe (Belgium and Estonia) also exhibited their products. Furthermore, compared to the last event in 2019, significantly more exhibitors from China (substrates+technology) and Japan were present. Especially in the field of specialty mushrooms there were more exhibitors than ever before. This underlines the need to provide more substrates from regional production. The trend towards a higher demand for mushrooms in the field of exotics continues unabated, as it has in recent years.