Andrew Middlebrook with Victoria Lloyd Davies, who has retired as the face of the Mushroom Bureau after 22 years

Andrew Middlebrook with Victoria Lloyd Davies, who has retired as the face of the Mushroom Bureau after 22 years

Mushroom Bureau chairman Andrew Middlebrook, of Monaghan Mushrooms, has outlined why the industry is putting its weight behind the product again.

Two years ago, when most of the major players in the industry had taken the decision to withdraw their support from the Mushroom Bureau PR effort, the future of the body was in serious jeopardy.

A change of heart has earned it a reprieve and chairman Andrew Middlebrook, of Monaghan Mushrooms said membership now represents around 70 per cent of the volume that is sold through UK supermarkets, representing every major source.

The budget for promotion of the £290 million UK retail mushroom industry this year, he said, is in the region of £100,000. “We’d like to think that after this year we’ll have something to build on in future years,” Middlebrook added. “That is down to the support of a lot of people and despite the obvious commercial pressures that exist in the market. This year, the pressure is really intense, but people have shown a desire to put up more money to promote their product than in the past. We want to get the people that are still sitting on the fence to recognise what can come out of the work we are doing.”

Middlebrook’s company was one that decided to pull out of the Bureau, so what does he think has brought about the change of heart? “With the benefit of hindsight, we took what was a short-term cost-based decision in 2001, but as the biggest player in the market, we have realised we need to be a part of driving the product forward - we are very keen to see the profile of our products develop. We are putting more money into the Bureau than we have ever done,” he said.

The Bureau’s agm in 2004 proved to be a watershed, when the bridge-building between the non-believers in the industry and those that continued to contribute to the cause began. Another catalyst was the intervention of Tunnel Tech’s Martyn Dewhurst, who brought across a group of Australian mushroom growers to share their experiences with the product Down Under, and enthuse their British counterparts.

It worked. “If we don’t support the product we are passionate about, then it is very hard to tell other people that they should do so,” said Middlebrook. “People don’t have a lot of money spare, but the Australians showed us the importance of passion and instilled some confidence. We are back, as are Walsh and Heveco, and we have to be.”

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