MUSHROOMS are edible fungus that’s not only high in protein, but it also has profound health promoting benefits. Due to its health benefits, mushroom farming has become one of the most profitable business in the last decade.
Furthermore, mushroom farming rake in big profits in just a few weeks.
The mushroom cultivation market was estimated to account for a value of US$16.7 bil in 2020 while the global mushroom market is projected to reach 20.84 million tonnes (MT) by 2026, according to market research firm Fortune Business Insights.
While the mushroom industry is relatively new and small in Malaysia, it has been growing in recent years.
In 2017, Malaysia’s Department of Agriculture pointed out that the demand for mushrooms was projected to grow up to 67,000 MT by 2020.
Although this edible fungus can be produced locally, Malaysia had in fact imported RM238 mil worth of mushrooms in 2017.
Realising the huge demand of the industry, particleboard-maker HeveaBoard Bhd ventured into fungi cultivation in 2018 through its subsidiary HeveaGro Sdn Bhd and became the Malaysia’s first Eryngii mushroom producer.
“There is a saying that you don’t make money from your core product, but from whatever wastage you’re able to recover,” HeveaBoard group managing director Yoong Hau Chun told FocusM in 2019.
In addition, the decision for this new line of business came as a cost cutting measure and to maximise raw materials. This is as the group’s two driving segments, particleboard and ready to-assemble (RTA) furniture manufacturing, are made from rubberwood.
Also, HeaveBoard’s policy is to discard the bark which by the time reaches its manufacturing plant contains leftover latex and this comes at an additional expense for the group.
However, the group’s fungi segment has been posting a loss since it started, narrowing its losses every quarter.
Despite that, Yoong told FocusM that the group was confident that the segment will start to be fruitful in 2020, “My projection is that next year, it should see upside from this segment.”
Lockdowns affected the industry
Just like HeaveBoard, many mushroom cultivators in Malaysia were once very enthusiastic about the prospect of the industry.
However, the ongoing lockdown in the country is crippling the industry. Even though the agriculture sector is exempted from lockdown, the mushroom industry faces disruption in the supply chain of raw materials.
More than 1,000 mushroom cultivators of various sizes in Malaysia are running out of their inventory of saw dust as sawmills have been completely shut down since June 1, unable to produce the much-needed raw material.
Important to note that, food security will be impacted if the industry is being halted.
“The mushroom industry is pleading with the relevant authorities to allow some activities within the timber industry to be resumed immediately, to ensure that the local mushroom industry will not be wiped out permanently,” Heaveboard said in a statement last month.
The mushroom producer also added that the industry is highly competitive, with neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam also mass-cultivating fungi.
The group is also concern that local cultivators will be facing so much more difficulties later on to recover from the current output slump if import of mushrooms were to increase due to the local supply disruption
“We are doing our very best to stay alive, however we do not wish to sugarcoat this very difficult situation,” Heaveboard remarked. “The survival of the mushroom industry in Malaysia is very much in jeopardy.”
On that matter, Heaveboard hopes that the Government will consider allowing sawmill operations to resume. – Aug 11, 2021
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