Canadian farmers seeing big growth in mushroom sales

More mushrooms are being planted, harvested and sold in Canada, with Ontario farmers leading the way.

Data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada shows that 61 per cent of mushrooms sold in the country in 2015 were grown in Ontario, while 29 per cent came from British Columbia.

Mushroom producers reported a nearly three per cent increase in the size of area set aside for mushroom harvesting – now at 47 million square feet.

They also saw a rise in sales of about 11 per cent, with that figure now standing above $417 million.

Between 2011 and 2015, the volume of fresh mushrooms sold in Canada rose by more than 35 per cent, while the prices obtained for those mushrooms jumped by about 59 per cent.

It was a different story for processed mushrooms, which saw a sharp drop in sales in 2015.

While farmers reported selling nearly 8,800 tons of processed mushrooms worth more than $17 million in 2014, those numbers fell to 2,847 tons and $7.1 million the following year.