February 13, 2009

Sponsored by:

Gourmet's Finest

Mushroom Marketing

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not reporting shipping point prices on mushrooms. Selected terminal market prices are as follows:

Chicago: Pennsylvania mushrooms, 10-pound cartons, medium-size crimini, mostly $12-13; 5-pound cartons large portabella, $10, medium, $9; 10-pound cartons large white, $15, medium, $12.50-13.

Los Angeles: California mushrooms, 10-pound cartons crimini, $19-20; 5-pound cartons portabella, large and medium, $3 per pound; 5-pound cartons shiitake, $4.50-4.75 per pound.

Philadelphia: Pennsylvania mushrooms, 10-pound cartons white, medium, $12.50, large, $14.50-15; 5-pound cartons oyster, $15; 5-pound cartons large, medium and small portabella, $8.50.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Feb. 11.

The Shipping Scene

Supplies of mushrooms for Valentine's Day and beyond are plentiful, quality is good and prices are reasonable, grower-shippers say.

Ample supplies of all varieties of white mushrooms as well as portabella, shiitake and oyster mushrooms are now available from Gourmet's Finest, Avondale, Pa., said owner Richie Pia.

The past week was a hectic one as the company prepared for Valentine's Day, Feb. 14.

"Next to Mother's Day, Valentine's Day is the second-biggest restaurant holiday," Pia said.

The firm does some retail business but prefers to focus on the foodservice category.

"We feel that putting our best mushrooms into foodservice gives us product that is superior to the competition in that category," he said.

The 10-pound box of medium, sliced white button mushrooms is the company's most popular package.

Although white mushrooms are the best sellers, portabellas also are becoming very popular.

"Portabellas have helped get mushrooms into the mainstream," Pia said.

The company's mushrooms are grown indoors, but that doesn't automatically ensure a good-quality, safe product, he said.

That's why the company's facility is certified by PrimusLabs.com of Santa Maria, Calif.

"Gourmet's Finest has devoted a lot of energy to food safety over the past year to produce the best, safest product available," Pia said.

The company ships about 20 million pounds of mushrooms annually and has opened a depot in Detroit that serves the Detroit metropolitan and suburban areas with farm-fresh mushrooms daily, he said.

With supplies of mushrooms plentiful, now is a good time for chefs to features them on menus, as a side dish or as a meat substitute, Pia said.

Basciani Mushroom Farms, also in Avondale, offers "all the marketable varieties," said Fred Recchiuti, general manager, with white button, portabella, crimini, shiitake, oyster and yellow oyster varieties among the most popular.

The company recently added a new cut called a one-sixth silhouette.

"It's very angular and makes a nice presentation on the dish," Recchiuti said. "It doesn't spin from under the fork and land on your tie."

The company also offers half- and quarter-cut mushrooms thanks to a new cutting machine that was added a few months ago.

Restaurants that buy sliced mushrooms can reduce labor and preparation time in the kitchen and eliminate the risk of cross contamination that can result by using a dirty knife or a knife recently used on chicken, for example.

"We do nothing but mushrooms here, so there's no chance of any of that," Recchiuti said.

The company is about to celebrate its 80th anniversary, he said.

During the winter, Phillips Mushroom Farms in Kennett Square, Pa., sells a lot of baby bella and shiitake mushrooms that often are used in cooking indoors, said Kevin Donovan, national sales manager.

But white mushrooms are the best-selling varieties, he said. In all, the company offers nine varieties of mushrooms.

Phillips sells mushrooms year-round to retail and foodservice customers in bulk and consumer packs.

Baby bellas are one of the fastest-growing varieties, but shiitakes also continue to gain acceptance, he said.

Phillips packs an increasingly popular retail blend that includes sliced baby bellas, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, Donovan said.

Although mushrooms are grown indoors, quality can depend on the quality of the composting materials, which can suffer if the materials are subjected to excessive rain or drought conditions, he said.

Mushrooms were the only vegetable that grew in both dollar value and volume in 2008, reports the Mushroom Council, San Jose, Calif. Dollars spent on mushrooms grew by 4%, and volume was up 1%, the council says.

The council has a new Web site -- www.mushroomchannel.com -- and has unveiled a national consumer recipe contest at www.tasteofhome.com that is supported by online advertising throughout the Taste of Home site.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

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