The Avondale-based American Mushroom Institute is happy with the mushroom supply after the holiday season, writes Jim Offner for The Packer.

“Overall, the outlook for the first quarter of 2018 is positive,” said Lori Harrison, the AMI’s communications manager.

She said that this represents an improvement in some areas, especially in Texas and Florida, where recovery from hurricane damage is still ongoing.

Harrison said that while mushrooms are grown indoors, their production depends on the quality of the compost grown outside.

“A fairly mild fall has given way to improved conditions, so growers are confident looking forward as long as they don’t have to deal with frozen compost,” she said.

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However, the biggest problem is often labor. Growing mushrooms is labor intensive, and as they are produced throughout the year, growers cannot apply for the federal H-2A guest worker program.

This has been an issue before, and it always affected supplies, said Michael Basciani, COO of Avondale’s Basciani Mushroom Farms.

“Automation is coming, but we haven’t found any automation that gives us the quality the consumer demands,” he said.

Read more about mushroom supplies in The Packer here.

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