Oak Mushroom Cultivation Sawdust from China



Date: February 7, 2005

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Sawdust inoculated with oak mushroom fungi is being imported into Korea without any restrictions. With the inoculated sawdust, it is able to harvest oak mushroom within 4 to 5 months if cultured in right environment.

Currently, 5 or 6 trading companies are importing the inoculated sawdust directly from China and they are widely distributed in Korea. Unlike the original characteristic, the oak mushroom could now be harvested from a sawdust and not from oak log. Specially, it is possible for the farmers to harvest mushroom by just culturing the sawdust with appropriate temperature and humidity since imported in an already inoculated state. Therefore the cultivation duration is shortened to 1/3 of the original duration. It not only helps in fast circulation of funds but also reduces the cultivation cost up to 30%. The demand for the inoculated sawdust is rapidly increasing due to these benefits.

However the inoculated sawdust are imported as ordinary sawdust that appropriate quarantine process is not undertaken. Normally, in fungi importation, scrupulous quarantine process is undertaken however for the import of inoculated sawdust, simple examination for pest and disease is done. These unregulated mass importation could cause vast damages to the farm community.

Regulations on mushroom import should be provided to control indiscrete distribution of the inoculated sawdust without any safety measures.

Translated by Int＇l Cooperation Division
☎ +82-42-481-4081 (Ms. Lee, Mira)