The mushroom season is in full swing in Lithuania, but pickers are upset by low prices: chanterelles, the popular Lithuanian yellow-coloured mushrooms are selling at only half of last year’s prices. According to Lithuanian processors, they face significant competition from Polish businesses.
Staselė Sablina, from the village of Žilinai, brings in about eight kilogrammes of chantarelles. That’s how much she found in three hours.
Mushrooms appeared in the forests of Varėna just a couple of weeks ago. This time, the woman sells them to processors at 2.80 euro per kilo. She believes that is too little.
“I think about 5 euros would be fair. Because you have to walk a lot of kilometres,” Sablina told LRT TV.
In early August, when mushrooms were scarcer, a kilo of chantarelles cost 6 euros.
“Today, the two of us picked a little over 18 kilogrammes,” says Jonas from Varėna. “Picking mushrooms is hard. You have to look. Last year the price was good and the two of us would share 100 euros.”
Processors buy and process the chanterelles and export them to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Sweden.
“Mushrooms are very moist, so they are used more for industrial purposes, ie, freezing, salting. We are waiting for drier weather, then the mushrooms will be oriented towards the fresh market,” says Virginijus Varanavičius, head of the Association of Berry and Mushroom Entrepreneurs.
Processors say that Polish mushroom industry presents the biggest competition in the European market.
“The Poles, when they don’t have mushrooms, they buy them in Lithuania en masse, they go to the buying points. They also drive buses around Europe, selling to restaurants, spoiling our supply chains,” says Vidmantas Budrikis, commercial director of the company Tandemus that processes mushrooms, berries and vegetables.
Since mid-July, the company has been buying around 10 to 12 tonnes of Lithuanian chanterelles every day.
Before the war in Ukraine, Lithuanian processing companies used to import more than half of their raw materials from Russia and Belarus. Since international sanctions have affected payments, most companies have cut off contact with Russian mushroom suppliers.
“We brought a few trucks from Russia when there were no chantarelles in Lithuania,” says Budrikis. “Mushrooms are not yet a sanctioned commodity. Italy, France, Austria have no problems [buying Russian mushrooms],” according to Budrikis.
However, according to Varanavičius, the head of the Association of Berry and Mushroom Entrepreneurs, most Lithuanian companies focus on Lithuanian mushrooms, while covering any shortfalls with imports from Bulgaria, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Entrepreneurs also have high hopes for the autumn mushroom season. They believe that Italian and French consumers are particularly keen on Lithuanian porcini mushrooms.
LRT English
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