Mushroom Market - Where Do Chinese Truffles Grow?

Fragrant and nourishing, mushrooms have long ago won consumers' hearts all over the world. While European customers prefer mushroom pates and pastes, Asians tend to opt for a mind-boggling variety of snacks and even beverages and jellies made from mushrooms.

Besides their culinary versatility, mushrooms offer unique health benefits for vegetarians, as the only non-animal source of vitamin D. They also contain vitamin C, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and many essential amino acids.

In Asian countries, some mushrooms are believed to be natural pharmaceuticals, reducing the risk of cancer and coronary heart diseases. Thus, mushrooms are often promoted there as one of the key ingredients of a balanced and healthy diet.

China is the world's leading mushroom and truffle producer, the Yunnan province in particular. The climate and geological conditions of this province make it the richest terrain for wild mushrooms. With a picking season that lasts from May to September, the Yunnan wild mushroom season lasts longer than Europe's.

Overall, more than 140 thousand mushroom varieties can be found on our planet, though only three thousand are edible. From these three thousand, more than eight hundred mushroom types grow in Yunnan. While production of Agaricus mushrooms is aimed mainly to meet an external demand, Lentinula edodes mushrooms, or shiitake, are mostly consumed domestically. Truffles in China, harvested from November through February, are predominantly cultivated in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Prior to Chinese truffles making their entrance on the global stage, the truffle trade was dominated by European varieties, such as the French Périgord black truffle, the Italian Piedmont white truffle, and the Burgundy truffle. Among all the truffle types, the Italian white is considered to be the rarest and the most expensive.

The Chinese truffle is believed to be a decent alternative to the Périgord black. Residents of the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces therefore enjoy stable incomes, owing to this crop. Truffle cultivation in these regions not only provides employment, but serves as a solid reason to preserve local forests as well.

Although being the absolute leader in mushroom and truffle production, China took the third spot in the global mushroom and truffle trade. In 2014, China exported 0.7% of its total mushroom and truffle output. Of this amount, 26.4% was supplied to Thailand.

In 2014, Poland and the Netherlands were the main global suppliers of mushrooms and truffles with a combined share of 45.6% of global exports. However, the fastest growing suppliers on the global mushroom market from 2007 to 2014 were Belarus (+47.5% per year) and Germany (+13.0% per year).

The United Kingdom (19.1%), Germany (12.3%), the U.S. (6.9%), France (6.5%) and Belarus (6.0%) were the leading destinations of mushroom and truffle imports in 2014, together making up 50.7% of global imports in physical terms. And while the share of Belarus increased significantly, the share of United Kingdom illustrated negative dynamics. The shares of the other countries remained relatively stable throughout the analyzed period.

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• key mushroom producers

Source: IndexBox AI Platform