Gourmet oyster mushrooms are currently being produced by Zero Wasye Initiative just as Tanzania in 2018/20 exported 81,000 tonnes of onions.
Business Environment Manager of the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha), Kelvin Remen, says in 2019, the African country sold 39,000 tonnes of onions to its fellow member countries of the East African Community (EAC), raking in at least Sh38 billion.
In the following year (2020), the country also sold more than 42,000 tonnes of the crop to the other EAC member countries for a total of Sh42.5 billion in export earnings reports thecitizen.co.tz.
According to Remen, “this shows that there are huge marketing opportunities for the crop, particularly in the countries that surround us. And growing castors is one of the strategies that we have to increase our export earnings.”
A Gisborne entrepreneur will soon open the region’s first “zero waste, grow your own mushroom” business that focuses on reusing waste products.
Mariska Van Gaalen is the founder of Mushroom Zero Waste an initiative that reuses plastic containers and waste materials to grow mushrooms in a sustainable way.
She says that for her to start a business meant being responsible for the entire life cycle of the product, and avoiding the production of any additional waste.
Ms Van Gaalen uses plastic containers collected from a restaurant to hold unused wooden shavings, coffee grounds and mycelium — the fungus — to grow native oyster mushrooms.
From the start of fruiting to harvest is about five days, with the mushrooms doubling in size every day.
Customers could expect to get about 150 grams of oyster mushrooms in the first flush, and to have a further two flushes from the same container.
The idea for the initiative came during lockdown last year when she remembered her experience at a restaurant in the Netherlands — where her family lives — and her encounter with its eco-circular economy policy.
