Every year from mid-June to mid-September, the Spanish canned mushroom industry, which accounts for around 70% of the mushroom sector in Spain, declines to almost standstill.
These days, the gradual restart of mushroom processing plants begins and by mid-October production will reach normal levels. The heat of the summer makes it unprofitable to grow mushrooms for processing, due to the high costs of cooling and air conditioning farms. The price of canned mushrooms cannot bear this extra cost. Of course, growers who produce for the fresh market have to meet market demand in the summer and continue to work.
Francisco Tomás Sáenz, president of Asochamp (the trade association of primary and mushroom producers in La Rioja, Navarre and Aragón), said that “at the end of last season, the canneries ran out of stocks. Because of the pandemic, people stayed at home more and consumed more tinned food in all its forms. The price of mushrooms per kilo has risen by 2-3 cents to 82-83 euro cents.”
But producers are facing problems such as rising electricity and peat prices. Demand for fresh produce is gradually increasing, but the selling price is not keeping pace. The price of fresh button mushrooms is around €1.5 per kilo, which can be more or less depending on the form of distribution.
In La Rioja, the sector has stabilised in recent years and has become one of the most important in the country. “Mushroom growers are going through difficult times, but we are not producing less and are even growing a little, despite the fact that some are retiring and there is no generational change. The sector’s production in Spain was around 73-74 thousand tonnes of mushrooms last year,” notes Sáenz, president of Asochamp.
Source: La Rioja
