Feature
Issue No. 10 - April/May 2003
Mushrooms make the grade
For four years in a row, the mushroom aficionados of Australia have voted Adelaide Mushrooms the best available in Australia.
The market leading agrobusiness, based at Woodcroft in the Adelaide Hills; is one of the top 10 growers (by volume) in the country.
Principal, Doug Schirripa was a fruit and vegetable wholesaler at the East End Market. Discovering that Reynella Mushrooms was for sale, Doug persuaded his corporate family to make the buy. In December 1983, they took possession of a unique property producing about 7000kg of mushrooms a week.
It was a canny move. At the time, there were not enough mushrooms grown in Australia to satisfy existing demand, let alone the surge that would come as our eating habits became more eclectic. The trends were clearly visible from the perspective of a market trader, and the Schirippa family had the added benefit of a long history of market gardening at Fulham.
The ex-Reynella, now Adelaide Mushrooms operation needed what Doug considers upgrading-others might call it innovation. Mushrooms were being delivered in waxed cardboard boxes; as the warm mushrooms hit chilled greengrocers' shelves, the resulting condensation made the produce slick and slimy, thanks to the waterproof packaging.
"We developed a box made of special, strong cardboard that absorbed water, so the mushrooms still looked good," Doug says. "It also fit the supermarket shelves better.
"The next issue was grading. Growers used to put everything they harvested-from large mushrooms to buttons-all together in the box."
To differentiate product for both size and quality, Doug developed a grading system that, seven years ago, was adopted as the Australian industry standard by the Australiam Mushroom Growers Association.
Given his marketing background, and as a board member of AMGA, Doug understood the strides growers had yet to make; grading was a first step in leading by example. Too often, growers were taking wh...
