Ms Orla McManus:

A lot of alternatives have been considered through the working group and so on. None of the alternatives proposed by the working group would work for us. Coir from India and Sri Lanka is not an option for us due to the cost. The tiniest increase in costs is now enough to make a grower non-viable. Members of the Commercial Mushroom Producers Co-Operative Society, CMP, are working together. I do not believe what is happening here is happening anywhere else in the world. We have growers, composters, harvesters, laboratories and trained people teaching people how to pick mushrooms. It is about the synergy of all of these working together. It is not simply about a laboratory trying to develop an alternative. There is on-site development with people who have built up expertise in the mushroom industry over years. These are all coming together. It is only because we have that and because our members are willing to invest up to a point - as I keep saying, we really need support - that we now have a workable option. However, it is nowhere near commercial scale yet. It is still at trial level. We think we will get to 2030. All of our stakeholders are from across the mushroom industry but, even if we get a substrate that looks like it might work, it must have no nutrition and not inflate the compost it is going on top of or soak up and leech all of our water. It is very hard to find that combination. We think we now have something. The yields are not optimal, which means we must keep developing our blueprint and may have to alter how we ruffle, water or fill or how we pick the mushrooms. The product mix we offer to supermarkets may also need to change.

This comes at a cost. We cannot produce a conventional mushroom for £2 a kilo anymore. When this substrate is used, it is now £2.50 and that is if we can get the same yield, so we are still a way off. We need support. This is being driven by industry because we feel we have no other option. While it was always going to be the way that we went, this has put a fire underneath us. Our industry does not have money to be playing around with. If we are to be bothered investing, we would like some kind of certainty that we will still be here next year.