Rwanda has stepped into the Kenyan mushroom market to plug the 17-ton monthly button mushroom hole in the Kenyan market.
Kenya’s button mushroom consumption has grown from 200 kilograms a month in the 1960s to 45 tons in 2024. Despite the number of mushroom farmers increasing supermarkets and grocery stores have had to turn to Kigali Farms in neighbouring Rwanda to meet a 17-ton monthly shortfall in supply.
“Six years back the company’s founder Laurent Demuynck paid us a visit as part of a survey of the Kenyan mushroom market,” informed Patrick Kanyi, a senior technician at the Mushroom Growing Resources Centre located within Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology’s Juja campus.
Today, Kigali Farms is the largest producer of certified quality button mushrooms in East Africa exporting mushrooms to Uganda and Kenya. Locally, the company supplies mushrooms to the country’s supermarkets, Carrefour and Naivas, leading food markets such as Zucchini and Beyond Fruits, and top eateries like Java.
Related News: Pioneer finds 18K a week dry-season income from mushrooms
Related News: Accountant’s job or mushroom farming; mushrooms earn more
Despite being the most in-demand mushroom in the country, unlike other mushrooms, button mushrooms are expensive to grow and require technical expertise to manage. Both of these are often out of the reach of Kenya’s mainly smallholder mushroom farming community.
“Button mushrooms perform best when growin in composted manure that needs to have been left to ‘ripen’ for about a month. Comparatively, my oyster mushrooms love growing in straw which I prepare in a day or two. It would cost me at least five times as much to source transport and prepare the amount of compost needed to grow buttons,” offered Jotham Alphaeus of the Organic Mushroom Farm when explaining why he had stayed away from button mushrooms despite their high demand.
Patrick Kanyi who has been supplying mushroom-growing seed to Kenyan farmers for a decade and a half also cautions the crop’s potential farmers to have a sure-proof way of maintaining 19-20 degree temperatures throughout the vegetable fungi’s growing period. This requires one to be a well-seasoned mushroom farmer or buy a fogger to regulate temperature and humidity without making the mushrooms wet. “Oysters will thrive in the 25-26 degree temperature range which is almost similar to Kenya’s average temperature,” he said.
Kigali Farms maintains these strict button mushroom optimal growing conditions through state-of-the-art ventilated warehouse grow houses.
Supermarkets and large fresh produce retail chains also prefer to work with bulk producers who can deliver consistent volumes throughout.
“Most Kenyan mushroom farmers are smallscale and do not work in groups. I produce under 700-1,000 kilograms each month but even I cannot guarantee Carrefour of a consistent supply if they were to approach me,” Jotham pointed out.
He further highlighted that despite being an ‘indoor’ crop, many farmers prefer growing button mushrooms during the rainy season to avoid regulating temperatures in growing rooms. This leads to boom and bust price cycles as opportunistic farmers enter and exit mushroom farming.
Thanks to low production and farm labour costs in Rwanda, Kigali Farm mushrooms cost the same and are sometimes cheaper than locally produced ones.
Related News: Nutritional & medicinal value of various mushrooms varieties
Related News: Njiru start-up training and buying back mushrooms from farmers
Kenya’s mushroom market has inflated by about 30 per cent every year driven by increased awareness and demand for healthier food options by the country’s burgeoning middle class. Mushrooms are an excellent substitute for meats on our plates despite having next to zero cholesterol and salts which raise blood pressure leading to heart attacks and strokes. According to a 2015 Kenya Ministry of Health survey high cholesterol affects at least 10 per cent of Kenyans.
Mushrooms further boost the body’s ability to fight off diseases, reduce the risk of cancers, protect brain health, and are an abundant source of bone-building vitamins.