Mushroom bumper harvest but hard to sell: Zhejiang Wenling mushroom farmers are worried

“In 2014, mushroom prices were still decent. At their best, one jin sold for nearly 10 yuan, and even ordinary ones fetched 6 to 7 yuan per jin. But 2015 was different. At their best, one jin could only sell for 4 to 5 yuan, and now they have fallen to 3 yuan per jin.” Recently, Chen Xueliang, chairman of Zhejiang Wenling Xinxin Edible and Medicinal Fungi Co., Ltd., told reporters that in 2015 the mushrooms had a bumper harvest, but the price fell by more than half.

It is understood that Wenling has a history of more than 30 years of mushroom cultivation, mainly Agaricus bisporus. In recent years, the mushroom planting area has grown larger and larger, estimated to exceed 5 million square chi (1 square meter is approximately equal to 9 square chi). Every year, starting from the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Wenling's mushrooms begin to go on the market and can be sold until around Qingming of the following year. Analyzing the reasons for the setback in mushroom prices, on the one hand, it is due to strong competition from mushrooms in the Jiangsu region; on the other hand, Wenling's mushrooms have a bumper harvest but no fixed purchasers, so mushroom farmers can only sell them cheaply, making the price lower and lower.