INTRODUCTION TO PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCTION

Mushrooms have been consumed by man as a part of the normal diet for thousands of years and in recent times in greatly increasing amounts involving a larger number of species. In 1991, the production of mushrooms worldwide was 4.26 million metric tons (fresh weight), which was an increase from the 2.18 million metric tons (fresh weight) produced in 1986. Sizeable amounts of cultivated mushrooms were grown in 32 countries in 1991, and of these, 3.94 million metric tons were of the “Big Six” mushrooms - Agaricus, Pleurotus, Lentinula, Auricularia, Volvariella and Flammulina (Table 4-1). Agaricus was the only mushroom produced in all 32 countries listed by Chang (1993) and accounted for 37.2% of the total worldwide production of mushrooms. Although the leading producers of Agaricus may change from year to year, the ranking in 1991 starts with the United States, followed by France, China, Holland, the United Kingdom and Italy, each one of which produced in excess of 100,000 metric tons in 1991. Lentinula was produced in 16 countries, Pleurotus in 13, Volvariella and Auricularia in 7, and Flammulina in 5 countries. In the table published by Chang (1993), from which these data were taken, it can be seen that China produced 2.24 million metric tons of mushrooms including all the “Big Six”. China was the leading producer of Lentinula, Pleurotus, Volvariella, and Auricularia, while Japan was the leading producer of Flammulina. Besides China, only Taiwan produced significant amounts of all the “Big Six” mushrooms. After China, the countries producing the largest amounts of cultivated mushrooms were: the United States, Japan, France, Holland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, in that order…