The Wildnismanufaktur Engert & Schneider GbR has been operating since April of this year. The company, based in the Allgäu region, will initially act as a specialized trading company for organic mushrooms, but will also cultivate fine mushrooms in the near future. By summer 2025, a total of 160m2 of organic edible mushrooms are to be produced. The main focus will be primarily on the king oyster mushroom, which is already established in Germany, as co-managing director Maximilian Schneider (r) confirmed on request. In addition to the mushroom division, the company also operates a small organic beekeeping business and offers guided mushroom walks.
The vision of Wildnismanufaktur is to establish a regenerative organic agriculture that closes local cycles and produces excellent products of the highest quality. At the beginning of the year, a renaturation project was carried out in this context (creation of an approx. 100m long strip of hedgerows to break up the agricultural land into small structures) and similar projects are planned for the next few years. Schneider: "Our holistic concept aims to implement natural yet productive farming methods in order to create habitats for humans and animals."
The two founders, Maximilian Schneider and Christoph Engert, met while studying biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. As part of their joint thesis, they conducted a biodiversity study of fungi in the Allgäuer Hochalpen nature reserve in the Hintersteiner Valley. In the process, the two biologists not only came across rare species, but also gained valuable insights into the diversity and adaptations of nature. It was out of this love of nature and passion for mushrooms that the idea arose to set up their own organic cultivation of fine mushrooms. Schneider: "In the first attempts with organic king oyster mushrooms, which we carried out in the summer, the quantities did not meet expectations, which was mainly due to the high temperatures and the lack of air conditioning technology. Nevertheless, we were able to harvest some mushrooms and thus gain important insights and experience." Furthermore, there have been experiments with maitake and oyster mushrooms, among others.
Wide variety of organic fine mushrooms
In the meantime, the initial focus has been on building a sales structure, continues Schneider. Among others, king oyster mushrooms and shiitake are offered, which find their way to the consumer via different marketing channels, in particular the hotel and restaurant industry, a regional organic wholesaler, and sales to private customers. "Our wish is to be able to offer a wide variety of organic fine mushrooms in the future, partly from our own cultivation. However, we will initially focus on king oyster mushroom cultivation and then gradually expand the range. We are still in the early stages: we are still learning the marketing ropes and, despite our scientific background, the cultivation itself is completely new to us." A large proportion of the mushrooms will be purchased from the Lippe mushroom farm, which will then later supply the new cultivation facility with the required substrate, Schneider continues.
Steady demand in the Allgäu catering trade
The market situation for organic mushrooms has been encouraging so far. "The cooperation with the organic wholesaler mentioned earlier is of great benefit to us in terms of marketing. Overall, demand has been steady so far: according to industry colleagues, there was a lull in the northern German region in the fall, but this was not as pronounced for us. We are also very excited to see how the Christmas business will develop and want to focus more on acquiring new customers, which is more difficult in times of inflation. After all, we sell a luxury product and accordingly, the circle of potential customers is already quite small. Nevertheless, we are extremely satisfied with how things have gone so far. In particular, the king oyster mushroom, which is versatile in its preparation, has already become well established in regional gastronomy, which in turn is reflected in stable demand."
Photo credit: Wildnismanufaktur Engert & Schneider GbR
For more information:
Maximilian Schneider
Wildnismanufaktur Engert & Schneider GbR
Wenglingen 16
87648 Aitrang
Phone: +49 155 66195792
Mail: [email protected]
www.wildnismanufaktur.bio