Industry experts paint a gloomy outlook for South Africa’s mushroom industry, largely as a direct result of load shedding, high input costs and the closure of two mushroom farms. In the mushroom industry, farms are closing, shortages are becoming more prevalent and consumers are having to pay more as load shedding keeps all these elements in place.
These challenges, however, are not new. Tropical Mushrooms farmer Peter Nyathi said their industry is faced with a myriad of challenges. “It is very controlled and it has a lot of problems nowadays,” he said. “It lacks openness and competition because the big guys destroy the young ones, and when they have problems there are shortages in the market.”
There is currently a mushroom shortage in the country, with a number of farms having closed. This has had a snowballing effect on the price of mushrooms. “The prices are high at the moment because of the shortage throughout the country. This is probably the highest they have ever been during the past five to 10 years,” Nyathi said.
As one of the biggest black mushroom producers in the industry, Nyathi believes the government has failed them. As far as he is concerned the current economic conditions of the country favour those who have deeper pockets.
Source: foodformzansi.co.za