PEI Gourmet Mushrooms
Six
years ago, in Fortune, Prince Edward Island, Peter Peters began growing
certified organic shiitake mushrooms on a year-round basis.
Deciding
to farm organically was not a difficult choice for Peters. “There are
enough pesticides and herbicides in the world,” he says. PEI Gourmet
Mushrooms has now been certified for about three years. The production
plant is certified with Organic Crop Improvement Association of New
Brunswick, and Peters believes that it is the only organically
certified mushroom plant in North America.
Some of PEI
Gourmet Mushrooms shiitakes are sold to the five star restaurants on
Prince Edward Island; however, much of their product is transported to
New Hampshire, Boston, and Rhode Island to be sold. And for Peters, the
distance makes transporting and marketing two of his biggest challenges.
In
being certified organic, Peters believes it gives his business a chance
to go further in the market. Due to the distance between the place of
production and the market, Peters doesn’t want to sell “just your
average mushroom”. Rather, these shiitakes are a health food product,
where the organic designation adds to the health benefits and increases
people’s interest in the product. In Peters opinion, being certified
organic will become even more beneficial when the baby boom generation
becomes increasingly concerned with their health and in consuming
healthier, organic products.
At PEI Gourmet Mushrooms,
the shiitake mushrooms are produced in the most modern facilities
available, and European growing methods and cultivating techniques are
used. These mushrooms are grown indoors using two buildings, of about
7,500 square feet each, and processed in a manufacturing building of
25,000 square feet. This ensures that they can produce a product that
is of superior quality.
The mushrooms are hand-picked,
and then packaged in one of two unique and innovative ways: The first
is a retail pack “six pack”, in which the mushrooms are packed in
clear, vented plastic 100 gram containers, which are labeled and bar
coded. Six of these containers make up one retail pack, giving it its
name. The other method of packaging is in three pound bulk boxes with a
labeled, vented cover sheet. PEI Gourmet Mushrooms always guarantees
that their shiitake mushrooms will be delivered fresh.
Peters
is now looking to the market to determine his future plans, “I’d like
to see the continued market growth of organics over the next several
years, as people learn more about the health benefits of organic food
and develop a stronger interest in these products”.
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