Increasing demand for mushrooms spawns success

When Sandra and Neil van Rij ventured into mushroom farming in 2008, they went all out, setting up both spawn production and a commercial mushroom farm. Medicinal mushrooms were in particularly high demand at the time, and oyster and shitake mushrooms dominated the operation, neatly named MushRush.

It didn’t take long before the couple, who are based in Howick in KwaZulu-Natal, realised that producing both spawn and mushrooms required a great deal of juggling, especially when trying to keep up with demand.

“It’s like a poultry farmer trying to produce chicks and broilers. The two are both specialised and each requires one’s full attention, ” says Van Rij. Spawn and mushroom production each offered its pros and cons, however, and the Van Rijs weighed these up carefully before finally deciding on spawn.

“Spawn producers are few and far between, and the business is capital-intensive, so there’s a greater gap in this market. We also