There is a high demand for quality Hungarian mushrooms abroad.
The demand is so high that serious technological development is needed to double the current yield for the export market, the National Agricultural Chamber (NAK) told MTI.
Mushroom production in Hungary has increased from 18,000 to more than 39,000 tons in the past 10 years. Ninety percent of the mushrooms produced are champignon and seven to eight percent are oyster mushrooms. Nearly two-thirds of these mushrooms are exported.
Hungarian cultivation currently greatly exceeds domestic demand and it could be doubled due to the high demand from overseas. In the past few years, diverse development programs started within the Rural Development Program to increase the Hungarian mushroom cultivation. Greenhouse cultivation is recommended to reach higher yields than with cellar cultivation, but it requires some serious investment.
Three quarters of the marketed champignon production is fresh, and only one quarter is canned. In addition to exporting fresh champignon and oyster mushrooms, shiitake fungus is also available.
In Hungary, although there are some big producers, the majority of the registered producers are smaller (approximately 250 smaller mushroom producers are registered). The industry employs 4,500 people countrywide.
“The mushroom consumption per capita in Hungary is low. It is around 1.5 kilogram a year but there is an increasing tendency," NAK stated.
The latest Agricultural Market Report of the Agricultural Research Institute stated that more than 8,000 tons of champignons were exported and only 300 tons imported. Champignons are mainly grown in Pest, Heves and Bács-Kiskun counties and are exported to Austria and Romania.
On the Wholesale Market in Budapest, the champignons price has risen by six percent to 485 HUF per kilogram, and the price of the oyster mushroom has increased by one percent to 330 HUF per kilogram.