[Music]
[Narrator] This urban supermarket shopper is buying a package of fresh shiitake mushrooms
harvested many miles away on a farm in rural Virginia.
It's a luxury that's taken for granted by the average consumer
but it couldn't have happened without a lot of behind the scenes planning and
the cooperative efforts of a number of Virginia farmers
who were looking to supplement dwindling income from traditional farm crops.
So far more than 200 Virginia landowners have started commercial shiitake
mushroom production, although most of them continue to raise
traditional farm products. Andy Hankins of Virginia State University
serves as Virginia's extension specialist in alternative
agriculture. The mushroom industry in Virginia
started in 1981 when a group of Korean nationals started the elix corporation
in Buckingham county. They moved to Buckingham county because
there's a short wood pulpwood industry there and they had a very
excellent access to thousands of the right size
oak logs that they need for production. They provided consulting services for
a handful of growers and the industry got started all through the state
after several interested extension agents got started
spreading the word about shiitake production and it spread from
from neighbor to neighbor and then the national
farm magazines got on the scene and they printed a lot
of articles about shiitake mushroom production
elix corporation came to Virginia in 1981
with a large operation in Buckingham county
but there was one particular farmer in Madison county named Buddy Hale he was a
dairy farmer there and actually when I started as a county
agent in Madison county in 1983 he showed me the mushroom production
that he was doing and i was just fascinated by it
and i could also see that he was making some money so he and i
really spread a lot of information from that one particular county
just because he was a very open individual who allowed
a lot of people to come to his farm for farm tours
so many of the national farm magazines came there to for interviews about
the mushroom production 1983 we formed an association called appalachian
mushroom growers and appalachian mushroom growers was
designed to help the growers first learn a lot about production
and they knew even then that we would need a lot of marketing information
well as a parent organization this this group of 300 people began
working towards development of a mushroom marketing cooperative
and these people met week after week for a full year every
two weeks they get together and have three hour
meetings just planning the development of the cooperative these kind of things
do not happen quickly and easily and since the production was spread all
over the state of virginia the steering committee members were
having to often drive 150 200 miles to get to the meetings so
if anyone ever begins work with a an agricultural industry that is spread
over a wide region they've got to have very committed
people as more and more producers become skilled at mushroom production finding
markets for the crop becomes an important consideration
the early industry was based to a large extent upon trade to the
gourmet restaurants in virginia and in washington dc area
and it was a excellent kind of business growers could
produce just even 25 50 75 pounds of mushrooms a week
and sell them at very good wholesale prices about five dollars a pound
we had a situation where we had over 200 shiitake mushroom producers in the state
of virginia all producing mushrooms for one small
market which was the gourmet restaurant trade and the word got around
that the market was flooded well that particular market was flooded
but that is not the only market that there could be for shiitake mushrooms
other markets could be supermarket chain stores that is where a huge amount of
fresh produce is sold and a huge amount of mushrooms are sold
another market could be institutions such as the military into hospitals into
prisons right now we're at this business
management and marketing development stage
that is must be successful for any further activity to take place
despite the large and growing demand for fresh produce across the country
it's difficult for an individual grower to gain access to fresh produce markets
most people buy their produce at the supermarket and modern chains won't buy
small amounts directly from a farmer they need large shipments of a
consistent quality week after week most of your big chain store buyers
prefer to work through a middleman when you're a buyer for produce you've
got to deal in two things you've got to have a constant
supply and a constant quality you can do that working through a broker
who is basically working up and down the east coast for example
he uh he knows where the supply is he knows how to go for it you work with an
individual farmer such as john smith if he if he goes to a buyer and says i'm
going to be in business this long i'm going to be in business my
market one day is three weeks and i'm gonna have this product this much
product for this long then he's got a better chance of getting
in the door if he works with a group then that group
a group working through a cooperative type thing can expand
their marketing wonder because you've got more
growers and you can tell them you're going to have this much product for this
long these chains usually have a regional
distribution center that supplies all of the stores in the region with the
same produce at the same price a large farming operation with hundreds
of acres and a substantial investment could
supply enough produce for supermarket chains
but a typical virginia farmer cannot the mission of the corporate extension
service program at virginia state university is to focus on small farm
development and development of alternative
enterprises suitable for small farmers shiitake
mushroom fits into a small farmer's program perfectly because of the fact
that it is high in in labor it requires a lot of
labor but it does not require a great deal of capital so a small
farmer can go into mushroom production without having
to make a large investment so it fits very well
into a small farmer's program 80 percent of virginia
farmers are considered to be smaller farmers so it's our
intent to help those farmers increase their income
along with trying to return profitability to virginia agriculture in
general the extension service and other state
agencies can help producers gain access to supermarket
processing and institutional market channels
virginia tech extension agricultural economist dr
charles cole believes the well-structured agricultural industry
must be developed for every crop that's grown
the planning committee for the virginia shiitake mushroom marketing cooperative
had put together four very clearly defined channels
the wholesale retail the food service the military market
and the further processing market it was felt by the
mushroom committee that the wholesale retail market
had the greatest amount of potential for a test market
accordingly the market was divided into five different segments and
detailed plans were developed for each of these segments
in the case of the the shiitake mushroom market
we looked at the retail store and set up the information that we needed to
learn from the test market from the retail store
and then immediately before that uh enterprise in the channel we looked
at the distribution then the packing then the assembly
and the production so you see that we worked
from the front end of the channel to the back end
now the value of this exercise is to make sure that the prices
charged at the retail end are adequate to cover the margins
in each of the channels that will be the product will be flowing through so
in the case of the retail industry the price was mapped out and then the
enterprise was set up to look at distribution
packing assembly and production in the test marketing situation we look
carefully at how we were going to maintain the
quality of the product in the marketing channel from harvest to
the retail store it was very important to maintain
a certain temperature gradient in that total process
it was also very important for us to have a
very detailed analysis of the cost the cost at each of these sectors in the
marketing channel so as we put together the detailed
planning we had the refrigerated truck cost for the
distribution channel and the assembly channel because at all
times the product was being refrigerated from the time it was harvested off the
logs until it was put on the the retail shelf in the supermarket
in addition to that some very detailed work was done at the packing plant to
make sure that the product was assembled and then
packed in accordance with a standard specification
that was asked for by the retail market manager
in this case instead of packing the mushrooms in bulk they were packed in
three and a half ounce containers and approximately 20
different cost elements were involved from the
time the product came in the front door the
packing plant until it went onto the truck
for distribution leaders in the virginia mushroom industry are using a systems
approach to the development of this enterprise
five essential segments are being developed at the same time
these include production assembly packing
distribution and retail sales this model can be used for many high
high-value intensively cultivated crop and livestock products
in virginia shiitake mushrooms are grown on natural hardwood logs
chestnut oak works best because its thick coarse bark resists competing
fungi which can reduce yields white oak logs also work well
but the red oak family should be avoided because they are easily infested by
other wood rotting fungi producers must learn all of the standard production
procedures before attempting to grow shiitake mushrooms
or any other agricultural product before 1980 no one ever grew shiitake mushrooms
in virginia as growers tried to transfer a
production method that works in korea to central virginia conditions some
production problems had to be overcome
whenever a new alternative crop enterprise is attempted
there will be problems first there will be biological problems
like insects diseases and weather extremes
there will also be human factors to consider
it's sometimes difficult for farmers who are used to growing large fields of row
crops to switch to an intensively cultivated
high value crop they must learn to pay close attention
to minut details in order to grow a marketable crop
logs for mushroom production must be cut from healthy trees
between november and february if trees are cut in warmer weather
when sap is flowing the logs lose their bark
it's important for the logs to retain tight strong bark for mushroom
production mushroom spawn is planted into holes
that are drilled into the logs at regular intervals
an average log will be planted in 20 different inoculation
sites the spawn is sealed into each hole with
polyfoam or wax plugs from this site the mushroom fungus will
branch out into the surrounding wood and in four to six months the log will
be completely colonized by the fungus the inoculated logs are arranged in
diagonal rows they need at least a 70 percent canopy
of shade for optimum mushroom production shiitake
mushrooms grow quickly in warm weather they mature in just four
days growing mushrooms use nutrients found in
the sapwood layer of the log the mushrooms often have to be harvested
twice a day to catch them at their best stage of development
for best quality they should be tightly cupped
the caps can be harvested with a sharp knife or by hand
producers have learned to expect mushroom growth after extended periods
of rain so they soak the logs in water for 24
hours to initiate fruiting and maintain regular harvests
since mushrooms emerge when the relative humidity is at 80 percent
growers cover their racks of logs with clear plastic this maintains humidity
around the logs on dry windy days several early virginia mushroom
producers suffered losses due to a competing fungus called hypoxalin
growers learned that some tree species like chestnut
oak can resist the black fungus other wood rotting organisms like coriolis
versacolor or turkey tail can attack mushroom logs
growers now know sanitation around the growing yard
helps to reduce competing fungi they've also learned that good sanitation can
prevent problems with mushroom quality insect
control is another consideration in mushroom production
growers must be certain that no insects are present during harvest
slugs various beetles and other insects can destroy a crop
birds squirrels and deer also feed upon shiitake from time to time
to develop any industry production must become standardized so that a large
volume of the same quality product can be assembled routinely all
growers must adopt the same most effective production practices
there's uh research going on to help the smaller producer of some of these
specialty crops like shiitake in ways that they can uh
produce and handle and market their products most efficiently and give
as much money back to the to the farm as possible
the major aspects i guess or considerations for
a log producer are his quality and his cost of production
and if he can keep his quality very high and his cost of production
relatively competitive if not lower than his competition
he'll have a good opportunity to succeed in this business
commercial mushroom growers in virginia are scattered over a wide geographical
region with at least one grower in each of 95
counties most are in rural areas far from
supermarket chain distribution centers these growers formed a mushroom
marketing cooperative to assemble large volumes of shiitake mushrooms for
the supermarkets as well as to transport the produce to a
central packing facility the cooperatives set up four regional
assembly points where growers take their mushrooms to be placed into large
walk-in coolers each week a refrigerated truck arrives
at the assembly points to pick up the mushrooms and deliver them to the
packing facility virginia tech agricultural engineers
designed a packing line for the cooperative
since every minute spent on grading and packing costs money
several designs were tried to save time and labor
packing materials also add to the cost of production
the cooperative decided on a clear package so that consumers could easily
see what they were purchasing dr jean hock was one of the engineers
involved in the project and the things that we we had to
consider in developing this packaging line because there had not been a
similar packaging line like this in existence was the uh first of all the
package what kind of package could we use and how we were going to enclose it
and how to coordinate that and integrate that with the
the sorting and the weighing uh segment of the packaging line
this led to the development of this uh rotating disk
on which the sorted mushrooms were placed and from which
the weighers could select the mushrooms that they needed to pack the three and a
half ounce packages that then went on into the ceiling of
this packages machine that we were able to purchase that would
wrap and the package and then provide a
label for the place for the label we also
had to provide ventilation for this package we have to have
oxygen around mushrooms in the package we also had to work with the the box a
carton in which the individual packages were placed
because we had to provide a certain number of these in each
package to the grocery store and they also
had to we had to make sure that the packages were not
crushed or smashed in in transit so we had to come up with the the
partitions there were no standards for grating shiitake mushrooms in the united
states before this program got started grades that were used for dried
mushrooms in oriental countries did not apply to the fresh virginia product
the virginia mushroom marketing cooperative decided to display only
perfect quality or grade 1 mushrooms for sale in
supermarkets growers who were used to selling all
their mushrooms to restaurant suppliers had to adjust to stringent new quality
standards that were imposed for supermarket sales
mushrooms that did not meet these standards were called by the graders and
disposed of essentially our role was to look at the
quality control of the mushroom through the whole process
and what we were looking at is the initial condition of the mushrooms when
we picked them up at the distribution sites from the growers
and then follow them through the whole process we did find some problems with
outside contamination not microorganisms but
things like chainsaw filings that one man had
filed his chainsaw several months ago in an area where he was working
with the mushrooms when he was packing them and they had filtered onto the
boxes and gotten onto the mushrooms the same with cat hair someone had their
cat in the in the area where they were sorting the
mushrooms and picked up that kind of thing
all things that were really easily controlled if the growers
thought about it the same thing we had some contamination that seemed to be
spread by the knife as they were harvesting them if they used a little
bit of sanitation between every so often in the process of
harvesting them that that should control control that
type of thing once they're packed cases of mushrooms
are returned to the refrigerated trucks for shipment to the supermarket chain
distribution center at this stage quality control and
transit becomes important especially if the distance is far
one of the first things to keep in mind that the produce is
at its peak when it's picked it is never going to get any better
so what you have to do is handle it in such a way that you
do that you lose as little quality as possible over time
one of the first considerations is to harvest
good quality product it's just like a computer if you have garbage in you get
garbage out of it second thing is to handle the product in
such a way as to do the least amount of damage
most of the damage from handling shows up later in the distribution process it
doesn't show up at the time that it occurs the next item is to
select a pro a package that will protect
and hold the product in one spot and third and most important is to
provide adequate refrigeration at all steps of the distribution process
that you can at the distribution center ownership of the mushrooms is passed
from the growers cooperative to the supermarket corporation it's more
efficient to make one stop at a central distribution center
than to deliver to different stores at different locations
but there must be enough of the product to supply all of the stores in the
region successful sales is the most crucial
factor in the development of an agricultural
industry with shiitake mushrooms consumer education plays a role in
acceptance at the retail store according to susan mayo marketing
specialist for farm fresh incorporated the factors that will accept the
consumer acceptance of the product is education i think what we found at
store level is the fact that consumers as they got a
chance to see the product and to also taste it we
had more favorable sales during the time the product was actually being
demonstrated and also our demonstrators were
demonstrating the product also said there were repeat sales
the following week that customers that came back looking for the particular
item also the packaging is key a package that
represents a product that the consumer can see and also gives the appearance
that it's fresh and has some shelf life to it
as well as perhaps some accompanying literature you know some information the
consumer can take back with them read about the product and also recipe
information so the consumer can use it what you've seen is a systems approach
to the development of alternative crop enterprises
it will become more and more important for those who work in agriculture to pay
attention to every phase of their business
development during these changing times it is of extreme value to spend an
adequate amount of time in the planning process if we are going
to be successful with the marketing ventures it's
important to have all of the details dealt with and
understood before the actual marketing process
takes place i just would like to see this kind of a
program go on for any specialty crops that try to come
along in the future people feel i think a loyalty to those
products that are grown in their very own state
and if those products are available in the supplies that we need and they're
priced competitively is certainly something that we'd like to
tap those resources and use products that are grown in our state and support
our own farmers
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