LEAMINGTON, ONTARIO, CANADA - Strong momentum is showing signs of opportunity for growth in the organic mushroom space. With its robust portfolio and unique production practices, Highline Mushrooms is helping its partners channel continued growth in the sector.
“The organic solution for mushrooms channels a sustainable growing approach and healthy eating for a growing market segment,” shared Kelly Hale, Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Distribution. “We see organic mushrooms trending up in both pounds and dollar sales, and Highline is here to support the growing category.”
Highline optimizes a Dutch-style compost and growing technology to produce a clean, white, and dense mushroom that is produced organically, Kelly explained to me.
“We maintain complete control from substrate to shipping with compost facilities servicing each farm and temperature-controlled packing rooms to ensure optimal conditions for freshness,” she noted. “With farms strategically located across Canada, close to the United States border, we are one day away from most major U.S. cities, which ensures the freshest product hits retail shelves. We capitalize on one-touch harvesting to ensure each mushroom is harvested directly into the till that the consumer will take home and that the till is rPET and 100 percent recyclable.”
With over 40,000,000 mushrooms being hand-picked each week, Highline Mushrooms strives to be efficient with a farm-to-manufacturing mindset to meet the food demand of an expanding population.
“At Highline, we believe in organics and the power of an organic program and strive to be climate smart. We have embraced technology to convert agricultural by-products into nutrient-rich substrates for mushroom growth, and we repurpose agricultural waste such as straw, stable bedding, and spent grain to create our substrate,” adds Kelly. “We use indoor vertical growing facilities, which have a smaller footprint than traditional crops, allowing us to produce over five pounds of fresh mushrooms per square foot, thus conserving land.”
By optimizing this cutting-edge growing process to reduce evaporation in its growing rooms—along with reusing process water in composting operation and utilizing greywater—the mushroom provider is able to significantly minimize water usage. This process enables the brand to produce one pound of fresh mushrooms using only about 6 liters of water.
“We have invested in state-of-the-art growing technology and used modern, environmentally friendly materials in the construction of our farms to reduce energy consumption,” Kelly continues. “This helps us keep our CO2 emissions and energy footprint in check. Our aim is to deliver hyper-freshness to consumers for every eating occasion, all while reducing our environmental impact and promoting a circular economy.”
As the mushroom expert advises, retailers can offer whole and sliced mushrooms in different pack sizes to make the category approachable to all consumers.
“Offering many different SKUs at retail creates a more robust display in the store and draws the consumer in to easily select the pack that meets their needs. Consumers are increasingly looking for the safest and most sustainable food to feed their families,” Kelly points out. “Organically grown mushrooms are sustainable for the environment while being an easy entry category for consumers new to organics. Organic mushrooms continue to perform above average and make up 10.8 percent of sales with total pounds over the last year increasing 0.8 percent, according to the recent Mushroom Council data. These stats support the need for retailers to showcase and expand their organic mushroom offerings.”
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