Oscar Wrenn, Chief Editor

It was on a bright, clear, and warm spring day (a welcome change from the Dutch rain, I was told) that the doors opened on the vast exhibition hall, with visitors flooding across the floor to see the impressive booths that had been constructed, replete with gleaming machinery, smartly-dressed operatives, and flowing beer and nibbles. Talking to veterans of Mushroom Days, it seems that the footfall was slightly down on previous years; the quality of conversations was deeper, however, and people seemed rushed off their feet keeping up with those coming to their booths. 

While companies attached to the Agaricus industry still made up the overwhelming majority of exhibitors, there was still a strong exotics/specialist mushroom presence, from spawn producers, substrate bag suppliers, to bag and machine manufacturers. Unsurprisingly this was led by a strong showing from East Asia _endash_ Japan, South Korea, and China _endash_ demonstrating the diverse ways in which these mushrooms can be grown. 

While held in the Netherlands, and with most visitors arriving from within the EU, this editor talked to exotic growers and those in exotics-related business and research from all across the globe, demonstrating the expanding interest and market for non-Agaricus mushrooms. In particular there seemed to strong interest from areas that have not traditionally had strong substrate production, and in particular South America (I spoke personally to growers from Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina). While still in the early stages, it appears that the expansion of demand for exotic mushrooms (outside of East Asia) may not be limited to Europe and North America. One exotic exhibitor told the JEMJ that they got the impression of increased interest across the board, and a better understanding of the basics of exotic mushroom production.   

As always, discussions being had with exotics growers revolved around the vital issue of how to link efficient and reliable systems that have already been developed in Asia with distinct local conditions. In particular growers were concerned with the availability and useability of local materials such as sawdust types and agricultural byproducts (and lamentations about the lack of specialist suppliers _endash_ an area to keep an eye on), how to market or process mushrooms to suit the local market (and particularly in terms of the fickle market for functional mushroom products), and the compatibility of safety certifications across jurisdictions. While there had been some anticipation from some corners that the focus of expanding producers might start shifting from bag to bottle lines, the sense this editor had was that bags were still best suited to the growing, and yet-to-be settled, market for exotics in places outside of Japan and China. 

One key sign of the potential for exotics was the interest shown not only by producers focused entirely on exotics, but also Agaricus growers who were looking to diversify their own production. While the growing process for the two categories of mushroom differs greatly, the steady increase of demand has clearly piqued the interest of these larger operations, and it will be interesting to see in what way they choose to start growing exotics, what species they focus on, and whether this will precipitate an acceleration of accessibility to these mushrooms. 

One particularly interesting part of the exhibition was the strong presence of companies and research institutions dealing with exotic spawn. Established spawn producers were obviously present, but it was refreshing to have conversations with researchers and start-ups looking at spawn from different angles. These conversations were not only about how to refine and improve strains for currently popular exotic species: more than one organisation talked about the possibilities of cultivating new wild species on substrate, taking mushrooms that were already foraged and known in specific regions, and attempting to find a repeatable, scalable means of producing them within the current growing systems (much as Japan did in the second half of last century). For this editor, these whispers suggested a general shift towards quality and diversity in exotic mushrooms; both seem to be positive moves for the industry, to avoid the pitfalls of a race to the bottom for a shrinking pool of high-yielding strains.