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Mushroom collecting: more than a hobby August 16th, 2015 by

When I buy a coffee or chocolate in London there’s a fair chance I’ll see a picture of a farmer or her family. I won’t see a photo of the person who collected the truffle or the chanterelles I buy.

Termite mushrooms BiasaMost food comes from cultivated or managed sources, but there are also substantial amounts hunted or gathered from the wild. The most valuable wild mushrooms include chanterelles, porcini (Boletus edulis), matsutake (Tricholoma spp.) and truffles. They and many other mushrooms need to grow on living, woody plants, where they form fungus-roots or mycorrhizae. It’s a mutually beneficial association that makes forests a fertile place for mushroom collecting.

The success of the wild mushroom trade depends entirely on collectors and traders. Yet these people are the least well-known aspect of an industry that provides a significant source of income for mostly poor people. One estimate put the in-season retail value of the most valuable wild mushrooms at more than $2 billion.

Selling termitomycesClearly there is more to rural livelihoods than agriculture, as this short account will explain. In Malawi women play an important role in picking wild mushrooms which they can sell and eat. They are surprisingly nutritious, with around 15-20% protein by dry weight. But for collectors it’s more important to sell than to eat, at least in in Malawi and neighbouring countries with miombo (dry) woodland.

Malawi benefits from an accident of nature: trees in the miombo woodland form mycorrhizae with edible species of mushroom. So too do the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America, which extend from northern California to British Columbia. This became a new source of matsutake, a highly prized wild mushroom in Japan, filling a critical gap caused by Japan’s declining production of matsutake from shrinking native pine forests, caused by disease, pollution and felling.

The North American matsutake is not quite as tasty as the Asian species, yet such was the demand from Japan from the 1990s onwards that new job opportunities quickly increased. In Oregon the collectors include local people who once worked in forestry (a declining industry) and migrant labourers from Mexico, Cambodia and Laos. These groups had little or no family history of collecting wild mushrooms.

Stall 4 with berries behindA recent study by Mattia Cai and colleagues at the University of Padua in Italy provides a fresh account of wild mushroom collecting in Finland, where the government encouraged collection of wild mushrooms after the Second World War because of fears of food shortages and to generate rural jobs. In other countries collectors and traders operate in uncertain legal conditions and try to avoid officials. In Finland, wild mushroom collecting is exempt from taxes and anyone can do it.

The study divided collectors into professional, ordinary and recreational groups. The professionals were the smallest group selling to a local company, but provided over two thirds of the mushrooms (mainly porcini). The professionals collected for 45 days in the year of the study and earned €1200, around 5% of the average net annual household income for Finland.

In Spain, a separate study found that a family could earn over €200 in a day from collecting níscalos (Lactarius deliciosus), compared to the minimum monthly wage of just over €400. My colleague Miriam de Román’s family was from the village where traders bought the níscalos, so people were willing to share information. Miriam’s aunt told us: “If anyone says they’re doing it for a hobby, don’t believe them.”

There are concerns that commercial collection is unsustainable because of fears of over-picking. Scientific trials show this is highly unlikely, yet clear legal and regulatory frameworks are needed to ensure fair and legitimate use of natural resources. Authorities in Finland, the US and Canada issue licenses and set quotas, working closely with collectors and traders. In Italy, truffle collectors are tested on collection methods before they can let their dog loose to sniff for buried treasure.

In Africa and Asia, collection of wild mushrooms is, well, rather a wild affair. In miombo Woodland, pickers compete with charcoal makers and others for right of access. Authorities often fail to resolve disputes or to do so consistently. Fairer regulation would benefit everyone, but particularly the many people who depend on wild gathered foods as a valuable source of income and food.

Further reading

Boa, E. 2011. From Chipho to Msika: an introduction to mushrooms, trees and forests. In Mushrooms in Forests and Woodlands. Resource Management, Values and Local Livelihoods, edited by Cunningham AB, Yang X. London: Earthscan. Read more

Cai, M., Pettenella, D. and Vidale, E. 2011. Income generation from wild mushrooms in marginal rural area. Forest Policy and Economics: 13, 221-226

de RomĂĄn M. and Boa E. 2006. The marketing of Lactarius deliciosus in Spain. Economic Botany 60: 284-290. Read more

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