8 Drivers of the Mushroom Ingredient Market
The rising popularity of medicinal mushrooms is opening up new avenues of growth for savvy manufacturers, but these avenues can be fraught with pitfalls and risk for the unprepared.
The concept of mushrooms as medicine has existed nearly as long as the concept of medicine itself, with mushrooms appearing as a popular ingredient in herbal folk remedies in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the Western market has largely been ignorant of mushrooms as medicine, with mushrooms only starting to gain popularity among Western buyers in the mid-1990s.
Pat Camozzi, vice president of sales and marketing for mushroom ingredient supplier Nammex (Gibsons, BC, Canada), says that while medicinal mushrooms have been in use for centuries, it has taken over two decades of research and promotion to generate Western interest in mushrooms.
Says Camozzi: “Education is key. From a marketing perspective, this is still a very rudimentary industry. You don’t see a lot of mushroom products being advertised to consumers. A lot of the industry is dependent on trade shows. Our tactic has been to point out the differences between mushrooms so that people understand what they’re getting.”
However, market analysts say that despite the industry’s slow penetration of the Western markets, mushroom-based products and supplements are expected to grow, and grow quickly. One 2015 report predicted that the global mushroom market (combined dietary and medicinal) would reach a total valuation of $50 billion by 2019, up from $29 billion in 2013. This report projected that while Asia has always been and will continue to be a strong market, Europe will be the fastest-growing mushroom market in the world through 2019. The United States and Canada will also drive significant demand.(1)
Experts say that the mushroom market will grow in specific and predictable ways. Here are the eight significant drivers currently emerging in the mushroom market.
References:
1. Markets and Markets. “Mushroom market by type (button, shiitake, and oyster), by application (fresh mushrooms and process mushrooms (dried, frozen, and canned)), and by region. Global trends & forecasts to 2019.” Published online January 2015.
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