A Long Road Home for the Portobello

As recently as 1992, there were almost no buyers for the giant portobello mushroom. Practically none.

“You couldn’t give them away. You had to throw them away in the garbage,” says one produce industry veteran.

“The portobello is a phenomenon that just happened,” says Wade Whitfield, president of the Mushroom Council in Roseville, Calif. “It was one of those rare things that comes along and you hope you are a part of it.”

Based on preliminary figures, Whitfield estimates that in the fiscal year ending June 1996, more than 30 million pounds of portobellos will be sold, up from almost zero four years ago.

The portobello’s amazing success has added a great deal of fuel to the surge in mushroom production and consumption in this country over the last 10 years. But there have been other factors as well.

First, of course, is consumers’ continuing appetite for new, different and exotic foods, a trend that has energized the produce industry. Second has been the ability of the major mushroom processors to package even strange-looking varieties in easy-to-handle containers with simple preparation and cooking instructions.

For instance, only a few years ago, the typical supermarket devoted about two square feet of its produce display to mushrooms, according to industry statistics. The choice, at the time, was between whole or sliced white button mushrooms. During the winter holidays, maybe something exotic would slip in, like an Italian brown--or crimini--mushroom.

And for something really different, like a shiitake, consumers could always buy dried, packaged mushrooms in gourmet shops.

But since then there has been an explosion of fresh mushroom varieties available on a regular basis, and supermarkets have quadrupled their allotted space in produce sections. Led by the success of the giant portobello, sales of mushrooms are at record levels.

In the 12 months ending June 1995, there were 781 million pounds of mushrooms grown in this country, up 31% from 10 years earlier. About 68% of that total is marketed as fresh.

The white button mushroom still represents 90% of the fresh crop, according to government figures. The 30 million pounds of portobellos--actually Italian brown or crimini mushrooms allowed to grow a few additional days--account for an estimated 6% of the fresh crop. There were 5.5 million pounds of shiitakes, 2.2 million pounds of oyster mushrooms and about 1 million pounds of all other varieties harvested in the 1994-1995 season.

Pennsylvania is the nation’s production leader with about 45% of the crop, followed by California with 20%. But mushrooms are grown commerciallythroughout the country, Whitfield says.

As a result of a mandatory federal research and promotion order administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, each of the nation’s 220 mushroom growers must contribute a percentage of total earnings to fund the Mushroom Council’s programs.

Chartered in 1993, the group’s efforts are restricted to marketing only fresh mushrooms. The current promotional program is targeting pizza chains in hopes of persuading them to switch from canned to fresh mushrooms.

“The pizza market is a great opportunity for us,” Whitfield says. “Most of the mushrooms they use are processed, and tapping into that represents tremendous potential expansion.”

If the council could just get the public interested in a portobello pizza, sales might really mushroom.