What we do
Our aim is to co-ordinate support, through the AFCS programme to enable our growers to do what they do best: grow incredible mushrooms while supporting our local economy.
In recent years, there has been a significant downturn in the number of mushroom growers in Northern Ireland. The current volume and value of mushrooms produced in Northern Ireland is the same as when the number of mushroom growers was at its highest in the 1990’s at 144 growers. Now there are only 13 growers left in Northern Ireland, yet we are matching the same production numbers!
While trends come and go, the mushroom has remained a staple in many people’s diets and it is still in demand. Approximately 85% of mushrooms grown here in Northern Ireland are sold on the Great British market and the remaining 15% of mushrooms produced are consumed in Northern Ireland. With a love for mushrooms as prevalent as ever, our growers work tirelessly to produce the finest, freshest product we can.
By addressing the current challenges within the industry such as cost of input materials, NPD for added value products, energy costs, processing inefficiencies and sourcing labour, the group believe that we can progress the industry back to a sustainable and profitable situation.
Let’s talk figures: our growers farms average 442 tonnes per week in sales of fresh mushrooms. This gives a current total annual production of approximately 23,000 tonnes. The 2020 Farm Gate mushroom value was £1750/tonne given a total estimated output value for fresh mushrooms of £40.25M per annum.
However, sales are not the only way our industry aids the NI economy, the main material used to produce mushrooms is compost (produced by Northway in Ballygawley) with a total volume of compost produced in Northern Ireland per week of circa 1410 tonnes with an annual farm gate value of £15m per annum. The casing used in mushroom production and sourced in NI is worth about £2m per annum. Packaging, which is specifically made for the mushroom industry by companies in NI, is valued at about £7m per annum. Generally our mushrooms are sold to packing/processors – the main one being Monaghan Mushrooms.
Our industry also provides a host of jobs with an estimated 723 people employed full time on our mushroom farms (which include 548 mushroom harvesters). Additionally, there are over 306 people employed full time in the mushroom sundry supply chain e.g. Pack houses, transport, distribution, compost, packaging etc.
