Demand by shoppers for exotic mushroom varieties has surged in the plant-based “food boom”, says one specialist grower.
Lancashire-based Smithy Mushrooms says its business has nearly trebled in size in the last three years.
Fashionable oyster mushrooms in particular are flying off the shelves with one million packs sold by the Ormskirk firm in 2022.
The company, which has supplied Tesco for 30 years, is set to open a new production site in the autumn to increase its growing capacity for shiitake and oyster mushrooms.
Managing director John Dorrian said the demand is currently so high he has had to turn away new business because they cannot produce enough.
He said: “The plant-based food boom has been the best thing that’s ever happened to our business and suddenly exotic varieties like oyster and shiitake mushrooms, which just five years ago I was struggling to sell, have become super trendy.
“And since the Covid pandemic there has also been increasing interest in the nutritional qualities of mushrooms, which is now putting very unconventional varieties such as lion’s mane on the foodie map.
“We are already seeing other little-known varieties such as shimeji and eryngii being sold in supermarkets and we believe it’s an industry that is truly going to mushroom in the next few years.”
Tesco mushroom buyer Lisa Gilbey said: “Exotic varieties such as oyster and shiitake mushrooms have become hugely trendy with shoppers as well as food manufacturers like ourselves who are increasingly using them as key ingredients in plant-based dishes.”
