Experts discussed the issues and potential of mushroom cultivation in Russia at the event.

Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the expert community of mushroom growers took part in the event.

“Currently, our citizens consume about 1 kg of mushrooms per year. At the same time, the wonderful figures in Europe are three times higher, and in China - 26 times higher! Russia has great potential in this area, so it makes sense to strive for improving the quality and diversity of mushroom products in the domestic market,” Anikeev stated.

Experts noted that the volume of mushroom production has grown tenfold in the last 10 years, however, this industry itself is not in demand for many reasons. These reasons include the imbalance in government support measures, high VAT rate for mushroom growers, lack of proper product classification, shortage of mycelium, and problems due to anti-Russian sanctions.

Experts pointed out an interesting paradox: Russian mushroom products face high demands while simultaneously showing lenient requirements for Western products.

According to the Executive Director of the Mushroom Growers Union, Ilya Vorontsov, among other things, the problem of limiting the variety of mushrooms is also influenced by existing regulatory acts.

“Mushrooms are classified as annual crops, even though some of them bear fruit in the third to fifth year. Biologically, mushrooms are not plants. The percentage of processing, freezing, and canning of mushrooms is 20%. It's difficult to demand further development from the industry in light of such unfairness,” emphasized Ilya Vorontsov.

In order to eliminate barriers to the development of Russian mushroom growing, the participants of the round table decided to act step by step.

First and foremost, as pointed out by Anikeev, it is necessary to review approaches to harmonizing legislation, taking into account the interests of domestic producers, and to increase the autonomy of the agricultural sector in this niche considering the new conditions.

“We need comprehensive government support and preferential lending. We also need to solve the problem with classification, which hinders access to these tools,” assured the parliamentarian.