Mushroom output is up despite fewer growers

NEW growers continue to enter the mushroom industry, although the scale of operation needed for viability has increased significantly.

Teagasc mushroom adviser Gerry Walsh says you need to be selling at least 4,500 kgs (10,000 lb) of mushrooms a week to be viable and withstand economic and market shocks. Five years ago a weekly output of 2,250 kg was a viable level of production.

Nationally, the number of growers has declined from 576 in 1997 to 409 in 2001. But output increased to 68,000 tonnes of mushrooms in 2001, with a farmgate value of 130m, and employment totals more than 4,400 full-time equivalents, according to the Teagasc Census of Mushroom Production.