A collaborative venture as part of a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture, Votualevu Technical College and Bula Mushroom was launched recently by the Minister for Agriculture Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy.

The commercial mushroom facility was established to allow for the commercial production of mushrooms as well as act as a learning centre for technical agriculture college students to enhance their skills and knowledge on growing mushrooms.

While officiating at the launch, Minister Reddy said it was a milestone achievement for all parties involved in the venture as it was the first of its kind locally, seeing as the partnership set up between Bula Mushroom and the Ministry of Agriculture would also include the active involvement of students of Votualevu Technical College.

Hon. Reddy also highlighted the project would also positively contribute to the reduction in the importation of mushroom products into Fiji, as the country imported an average of 60tonnes of mushrooms annually for $0.9m to supplement the demand from hotels and high-end customers.

“Agriculture is asserting its place in the economy and agriculture is now taking a leading role in earning foreign currency,” he said.

“We need to save our foreign currency, one way to do this is to reduce imports but we can only reduce our imports in areas where we can. For example, in our mushroom sector, we are importing 31 tonnes of mushrooms per year at a value of $299,000.00 and these are the 2021 figures, so let’s work to keep that money here if we can and if we have a strategic advantage for that crop, let’s grow that here,” said Minister Reddy.

“Mushrooms are filled with beneficial nutrition which creates lots of opportunities for farmers to venture into. Mushrooms are gradually getting recognition in the Fijian market as studies on mushroom consumption suggest a healthy immune system and lower chance of getting Non-Communicable Diseases thus creating a high demand for fresh mushrooms from health-conscious consumers.

Hon. Reddy also urged the partners of Bula Mushroom to adopt a sustainable model to ensure they limited their dependence on external parties for the operation of the commercial mushroom venture, stressing the importance of operating their project as a business.

Meanwhile, Director and Partner of Bula Mushroom Ms Chaya Kumar said after attending a two-day mushroom training conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Legalega Research Station, they committed themselves to take up mushroom cultivation as it could provide potential farmers numerous opportunities.

“Bula Mushroom will continue to explore local raw materials that can be used as alternatives for substrates preparations, over the years, through trial and error, we’ve been able to master it and reach this far,” she said.

“Under our community arm, Bula Mushroom Foundation will provide mushroom cultivation training to vocational students here at this premises, forging a long-term agreement with Votualevu College, and this collaboration will be a win-win in supporting their vocational students to develop income-generating projects and this centre is going to be a one-stop-shop since the entire mushroom production process has been set-up as demonstrated,” said Ms Kumar.

The Ministry of Agriculture has trained around 2,000 interested stakeholders on Mushroom production, out of which 535 are actively involved in mushroom production and its value chain. Commercialization of Mushroom Production is in line with the objective of the Ministry’s SDP Strategic Priority 4 which focuses on “Establishment and Improvement of Commercial Agriculture”.

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