Very often, it is the issues of selling their products, including their certification, that become a stumbling block for start-up entrepreneurs. What can be especially annoying for a person who is one step away from realizing his dream - creating a profitable environmentally friendly mushroom production. The Center for Environmental Programs is ready to provide support with the sale of finished products to anyone who wants to realize their dream!

Let's try to list all possible sales channels for mushrooms:

1. Retail- with its stores of various formats comes to mind first. A mushroom grower can offer his products for sale to another entrepreneur who has his own small store. It is also possible to rent a place in the market and sell mushrooms on your own. Large chain stores, most likely, will not let a small manufacturer on their shelves - they are interested in supply volumes from several tons.

Of course, in order to be allowed to trade in food products in our country, you need to draw up the appropriate documentation:

A- it is necessary to register as an individual entrepreneur or as a legal entity;

B- have on hand legally obtained technical specifications for your products (you will most likely have to buy them);

IN- issue a certificate of conformity for their products at the Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance;

G-provide quality certificates for each batch of products offered for sale.

2. Wholesale- it is quite possible that your offer will be of interest to a dealer at a wholesale base or the owner of a small network of vegetable stalls. In this case, losing in price, you will save time and effort.

3. Canteens, cafes, restaurants- what used to be called public catering, and now the newfangled word for ferret. Naturally, the owners of catering establishments are interested in the freshness and quality of products and of course they will be happy with your supplies.

4. Selling through friends- you (and possibly your employees) probably have friends who love mushrooms, they have their own friends with the same tastes. By organizing trade "by appointment" and hurrying up with delivery, you will find a large number of consumers of your products.

5. Recycling- The disadvantage of all the above sales channels is the seasonality of demand. As a rule, in Russia there is a huge demand for mushrooms in the winter. Especially during holidays and fasting. In summer, demand is significantly reduced. In order not to experience interruptions in the sale of mushrooms, it is best to be able to offer them to processing industries. After all, mushrooms can be frozen, dried, pickled, salted. They are also used in the preparation of various types of cheeses, pates, dumplings, dumplings and pizzas, after all.

6. And finally, the most convenient option that insures all your risks. You can donate fresh mushrooms to our company. At the same time, you do not need to register as a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur, you do not need to buy technical conditions, you do not need to certify your mushrooms, you do not need to issue a quality certificate. There is even no need to buy something from our company. We will simply accept all the mushrooms at a price of up to 120 rubles. for 1 kilogram without any problems.

mushroom meadow
So, there is a demand for mushrooms, and those who are engaged in this business do not complain about their fate. If so, then nothing prevents you from doing such a profitable and interesting business. Alexandra Pilipovich, consultant of the state farm "Zarechye": Successful cultivation of oyster mushrooms requires much less effort and components than for harvesting champignons, and these mushrooms now cost almost the same.
Professional mushroom growing has nothing to do with growing them in ready-made blocks (logs "charged" with mycelium) at home. For a mushroom farm, you need to find a suitable room. A mine, a quarry or a basement of a house will do. The main thing is that it maintains a constant temperature and humidity (about 85%). To do this, you can install special aerosol dispensers. For example, a sprayer from Ventehkom, capable of "processing" 800 sq. meters, costs about 15 thousand rubles.
A detailed description of the "mushroom technology" is hardly necessary here - firstly, it will take up a lot of space, and secondly, you still cannot describe all the subtleties. Let's just say that any cellulose-containing waste is required for cultivation: the so-called fire (waste from flax factories), as well as straw, sawdust, and so on. Their main advantage is their low cost (for example, in the south of Russia you can buy straw for 25 rubles per ton; in the Moscow region, a ton costs 500 rubles). Chips at woodworking enterprises are given almost free of charge. By mixing these components in certain proportions, you will get a nutrient substrate on which oyster mushrooms grow.
In addition to the substrate, you will also need mycelium - mycelium. Only 6-7 enterprises sell the oyster mushroom picker in Russia, of which the three largest are located in the Moscow region - these are the Zarechye, Moskovsky and Novoselki state farms. The substrate with oyster mushroom mycelium costs about 4.5 thousand rubles per ton. In the regions, it can be purchased cheaper (for example, at the Ivanyushkovo farm in the Voronezh region, it costs 3.8 thousand rubles). The yield of mushrooms in this case can be from 25% to 35% of the total mass of the substrate.
Oyster mushroom grows in "waves", and the first harvest is the largest. Finally, the mycelium "exhales" in 9-10 weeks. After that, it must be changed. Of course, you can not buy a ready-made substrate with mycelium, but purchase everything separately - this will save up to 30%, but it will require extra hassle, and also increase the risk of not getting the expected harvest (preparing a high-quality substrate is quite difficult). For example, this is exactly what Sergei Panfilov does: I am only engaged in forcing - I take a ready-made substrate with mycelium from the Krasny Luch state farm and grow mushrooms. Every week I install new 900 blocks, each 10 kg - this is about a quarter of all my capacities. Each such block costs 52 rubles and gives 2-3 kg of mushrooms per month. In total, up to 9 tons of mushrooms are obtained on average per month. I sell them in bulk for 35 rubles. At least 10 people are needed to service such a plantation. Based on an average salary of $50 per month, net income could be $4,000 per month.

Vegetable biotechnology
Growing oyster mushrooms is only the first stage of the mushroom business. It is much more profitable to organize the production of raw materials - a substrate with mycelium - and sell it to beginner "mushroom pickers". As experts from the Interregional Association of Mushroom Growers note, for this you need to organize the production of the substrate with mycelium yourself, but the main condition for success in this matter is to ensure practically laboratory sterility. To maintain it, it is better to invite a qualified mycologist to work: it is almost impossible to independently organize the technological process.
As a raw material, you must purchase a "mother culture" (these are pure fungal cells bred in the laboratory). For example, at the Zarechye state farm, one test tube of cells costs only a thousand rubles, but if used economically, it can last for 10-15 years. For the subsequent production of mycelium, it is enough to place a particle of this culture in a special medium (nutritional grain agar), where it will grow, and then transfer the cell colonies to the grain matrix - finely ground grain. There they form a "primary mycelium", which gradually grows to a mycelium ready for sale. According to some estimates, the net profit in such production can be from 60% to 100%.
Ready-made blocks can easily be sold using network marketing technologies. For example, the metropolitan firm "Bionika" even offers to buy mushrooms grown on their substrate (the company makes blocks for use at home). True, for this you need to listen to a lecture on the rules for growing mushrooms. Education is paid - 890 rubles. At first glance, the offer is very attractive. True, they say, mushrooms can not be grown from every block. Nevertheless, in Moscow alone, according to some sources, about 6,000 people became clients of Bionics. True, in some regions, force majeure circumstances stand in the way of mushroom growing. For example, the chief sanitary doctor of Volgodonsk considered it unsafe to grow mushrooms in residential premises and forbade the sale of blocks with mushroom "seedlings" in the city.
That's all the profit.

DMITRY TIKHOMIROV

Oyster mushroom is a product of exceptional ecological purity, because it grows without any pesticides and fertilizers

For the first time, these mushrooms began to be used in China and Japan in ancient times. Oyster mushroom is a very useful mushroom. In cooking, it is used in various ways: for soups, for frying, for stewing, etc. If you are wondering where to buy oyster mushrooms, visit the nearest market or a specialized site on the Internet.

Types of oyster mushroom

There are several varieties of oyster mushrooms that differ in appearance, weight and taste. In particular:

• oyster or ordinary;
• horn-shaped or abundant;
• oak or dry;
• steppe.

Wholesale is sold only oyster, rarely you can find horn-shaped. The remaining species are considered edible, but are not sold for sale. It appears on the shelves in fresh and dried form.

The cost of oyster mushroom

If you need oyster mushrooms, you should know that the price per kg depends on the type of mushroom and the method of processing. Oyster oyster mushroom is cheaper due to its prevalence. The price of oyster mushrooms per kg is higher. Other types of fungus are not available for mass sale. A kilogram of dried mushroom will cost a little more than fresh oyster mushrooms.

Companies involved in this business can be counted on the fingers. Having visited and participated in the process of mushroom production, we tried to find an answer, what difficulties await those who decided to set foot on this path. And most importantly, if this is an "unplowed field" for business, is it possible to take advantage of the situation and open your own business?

mushroom cuisine

For many years, IE "Grigoriev" has been operating on the market in the Orenburg region, and now the stage of registration of its own trademark "Mushroom Kitchen" is underway. The idea to engage in cultivation came in 1997 to the candidate of agricultural sciences Valery Grigoriev. A teacher at an agricultural university, having studied the available methods, created his own technology for industrial production. The production organized by him has turned into a well-functioning mechanism, where they are not only grown, but also processed. The company has become a family business, which is continued by the children of the founder.

My father got excited about this idea because there was no industrial oyster mushroom in the Orenburg region at all, - says Anzhelika Slotova, daughter of the founder of the mushroom company.

At first glance, it seems that growing oyster mushrooms is very simple. Basement-type room with lots of light, very humid. The racks (called blocks in the language of mushroom pickers) are filled with bags of blackish-white contents, from which mushrooms hang in clusters. But, as it turned out, I saw only the end result of the painstaking and daily work of mushroom masters.

The production of oyster mushrooms is very complex and requires constant monitoring, so the company works around the clock. The microclimate must always be maintained, so all equipment works constantly. Any technological error entails large losses.

Cultivation of oyster mushrooms is a common business of the Grigoriev family.

Passed all the stages from the boiler-maker to the technologist. Our father gave us the basis and experience. The production is very energy-intensive, at least thirty days pass from the moment of sowing mycelium to harvesting oyster mushrooms. The substrate block must be monitored daily. Plus, mushrooms have a lot of competitive microorganisms, which lead to the fact that mycelium stops developing. As a result, instead of mushrooms, you can get a completely different result, or everything will simply disappear, - Sergey Grigoriev explains.

When we grew our first hundred kilograms of oyster mushrooms, we did not know what to do with them, how to sell them, because people reacted something like this: “What is this?” I even had to give it away for free. Although, for example, in China and Korea, the production and consumption of oyster mushrooms comes first. Our people don't have enough information. The stereotype also influences here, people prefer champignons, although the price is almost the same. They look like classic mushrooms, and this is attractive. Oyster mushrooms are much more useful than champignons, in Europe and large cities of Russia they are one and a half times more expensive than champignons, - continues Angelica.

A holy place is never empty, and this happened with the empty mushroom market in our region.

Fifteen years ago, when we just started the production of oyster mushrooms, the price per kilogram was twenty-five rubles. For comparison, a kilogram of meat cost seven rubles. Now the situation is different, beef costs about three hundred rubles per kilogram, and oyster mushrooms eighty-five rubles. The reason is a large number of champignons on the market, most of which come from Poland. There, the cost of growing mushrooms is much lower. Plus, there are also low customs duties. All this does not allow domestic producers to develop. As a result, it turns out that now the production of oyster mushrooms has become unprofitable, with the exception of a few months of the year - these are December, February, March and April. The market in the city is now so full of mushrooms that there is no point in developing this business. If more producers appear or we increase the volumes, then the mushrooms will have to be sold very cheaply and earn nothing. Moreover, in the region there is a demand for mushrooms only in large cities - Buzuluk, Orsk, Novotroitsk, Sorochinsk. In villages and district centers, there is practically no need for fresh mushrooms, people mainly collect forest mushrooms, - says Sergey.

- So, starting a mushroom business is futile?

Doesn't make sense at the moment.

- If they are in demand, then why not take them up?

They can also be produced, but if only for the needs of one's own family, and for large volumes huge investments are needed, serious equipment is needed and the implementation should go to the region, and not just to the city. The production of champignons in Russia can now be counted on one hand.

According to Sergei, the lack of good specialists who know the technology of growing mushrooms is also a problem for growing oyster mushrooms.

- So you have no competitors?

They are represented by small producers who at home, without certification, grow the same thirty kilograms. Then they have problems with sales, and they bring it to the market, where they give it away very cheaply. Plus, forest mushrooms compete, especially in autumn.

- Is it possible to grow for own consumption at home?

Mushrooms produce spores that are allergenic, causing fever and coughing. This is especially not recommended for people with lung disease. It is necessary to grow only in a greenhouse, in no case in an apartment, since for mushrooms it is necessary to create high humidity. As a result, in addition to harm to health, you will cause damage to the house, the walls of which will be covered with mold.

- From whom do you get help in business development?

For all the time that we have been working, no one has been interested in us, how we exist. Plus, I can add an interesting point to the same question: mushrooms are classified as vegetables, for which the VAT rate is ten percent, and for mushrooms eighteen percent. With what it is connected, no one can explain to us.

Society of Mushroom Growers

The competitors of the "Mushroom Kitchen" have recently been the association of individual entrepreneurs "Mushroom Community". Its founder is Yuri Ryabov. Yuri Petrovich has the opposite view.

The mushroom business is not even half mastered. Pluses in profitability and, most importantly, in the absence of great competition. Moreover, there has always been a shortage of oyster mushrooms on the market. If they are still present in Orenburg, then in neighboring cities - Samara, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk - very few. From there orders come in large volumes.

The society specializes not only in the cultivation of oyster mushrooms, but also trains those who wish.

If a person wants to grow mushrooms, then he will deal with them. It would be better if he comes to us and we work together than we become competitors. In society, we regulate the sale of oyster mushrooms.

Before you take on this business, you need to study the technology. If you rely on information only from the Internet or pick up “tops” somewhere else, then you will most likely burn out at the first harvest.

There were cases when a person spent money on production, but regretted five thousand for training, as a result he lost five hundred thousand rubles. Comes two months later with a request to teach him, - says Alexander Andreychev, an entrepreneur.

An equally important step for growing oyster mushrooms is the availability of a room and it is desirable that it be your own. It should have light, water and, ideally, gas, because the biggest costs are spent on heating water. Hot water is needed to steam the husks. Using electricity for this is very expensive.

The most important rule is patience, people want to get everything at once, but difficulties begin - they give up. Another mistake of beginners is that a person is engaged in amateur activities, deviating from technology. If you follow all the parameters, then the profitability is one hundred percent of the investment, - says Yuri Petrovich. - The prospects for the mushroom business in the region are unlimited. Now they are asking to deliver ten tons a week, but so far we are not even able to cover this demand together.

Note site / Oyster mushroom (lat. Pleurotus) is a genus of mushrooms of the Oyster mushroom family, or Pleurotaceae (Pleurotaceae). It develops on a substrate from inanimate plant residues, from which it is able to absorb cellulose and lignin. In nature, it grows on the trunks of dried trees.