White mushrooms continue to be the largest fresh mushroom category, followed by brown mushrooms and exotic mushrooms. For the four-week period that ended July 16, 2023, the US sales volume of white mushrooms amounted to 11.5 million pounds while the brown mushroom category made up 7.4 million pounds and the exotics category 400,000 pounds.
“Although white mushrooms continue to be the volume driver, the brown crimini category is gradually catching up,” says Mark Kreiner with Mother Earth Mushrooms in Pennsylvania. “Brown mushrooms just hold up better and are more forgiving. Consumers also consider them more upscale,” he commented. In the long-term, he expects Baby Bellas/Criminis to become as or more popular than whites.
Exotic mushrooms
While exotic mushrooms are the smallest category by far, they are showing the fastest growth rate. “Oysters , Shiitake, Maitake, Lions Mane, Enoki, etc. are more nutritionally dense compared to white and brown mushrooms,” Kreiner commented. “Consumers are becoming more familiar on how to use them in their meals and our retail and foodservice customers are increasingly starting to request them as every day items.” Starting this year, Mother Earth is offering a premium blend of exotic mushrooms, packaged as a medley. To continue promoting mushroom consumption, Kreiner would like to see the industry move to nutritional labeling on the packaging. “It would be a big help to convey nutritional benefits and attributes to the consumer.”
Exotic mushroom medley.
Dried mushroom products
In addition to exotic mushrooms, more recently the interest in mushroom by-products has taken off. New concepts like mushroom powders, capsules, mushroom jerky and mushroom drinks are increasingly of interest to consumers. At the Organic Produce Summit in Monterey last month, Mother Earth displayed dried mushroom and mushroom powder concepts for the very first time. “The dried industry is expected to continue growing,” shared Kreiner. “Mushrooms are a very delicate product with a short shelf-life, however dried/dehydrated products have the benefit of a long shelf-life (12 months ) while consumers still get all the nutritional value when they are rehydrated in cooking. It’s like having the benefit of a fresh mushroom, but with a longer shelf-life.”
Two years ago, Mother Earth celebrated their 100th anniversary. While the company has a legacy as an organic mushroom farm, it offers conventional mushrooms as well. “Over 75 percent of our products are grown organically. However, we added conventional to be a one-stop shop for our customers.” While the company wants to make sure it offers a complete organic and conventional selection, Kreiner mentioned how the price gap between the two categories is narrowing. As a result, a lot of national food retailers are fully converting from carrying conventional to carrying organic mushrooms only. Examples are Sprouts Farmers Market, Fresh Thyme, Natural Grocers , MOM’s and others.
Due to the fragile nature and short shelf life of fresh mushrooms, Mother Earth’s retail products can mainly be found in the Eastern and Central Regions of the US. “We do distribute as far west as Denver, Colorado and Texas. After harvest and packing, mushrooms have a good shelf shelf-life of about 10 days. Since we want the consumer to have a good five to six days shelf, we don’t currently distribute nationwide.”
For more information:
Mark Kreiner
Mother Earth, LLC
Tel: (+1) 610-268-5904
[email protected]
www.organicmushrooms.com