Healthy, tasty and fantastic value for money – it’s no wonder mushrooms are loved the world over by people of all ages.
Consumers in the UK are spending a whopping £304.3 million on mushrooms – equivalent to 7% of total vegetable sales – making them the third biggest vegetable sector after potatoes and then tomatoes. Over 114,000 tonnes (or over 250 million lbs) of cultivated mushrooms are sold in Britain each year, 88 per cent of which are the versatile white-cupped variety (Agaricus bisporus).
A survey of 500 UK consumers showed that most mushrooms are eaten for dinner (88%), and breakfast (34%). Mushrooms are served 1.2 billion times in the UK each year.
Under six per cent of mushrooms now sold in the UK are organically grown, however there is very little difference between organic and non-organic. Due to the rigorous hygiene standards and modern growing and harvesting techniques, the use of chemicals is not essential and it is often possible to complete the non-organic production cycle without the use of pesticides or fungicides.