 Hello again, St. Lucia, and welcome to the program, Agriculture on the Move. My name, Philip Sidney, your host. The Ministry of Agriculture considers this year to be a productive year for agriculture. This year is the year of production, and included in that program is mushroom production. Mushrooms have been imported over the years in St. Lucia, and we need to at least reduce the importation by increasing local production. The Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with the Taiwanese technical mission, have agreed to assist in the production of mushroom hair in St. Lucia. I have three gentlemen in here who have decided to form themselves and a grouping called the Mushroom Collective. And here with me to my immediate right is Mr. Jude Hutchinson, who is the president. Next to him is Mr. Eugene Gabriel, who is the PRO. And of course next to Mr. Gabriel is Mr. Alexis William, who is a technical coordinator for that group called the Mushroom Collective. Welcome to the program, gentlemen. Great. Mr. Hutchinson, as president, we want to know why this group was formed. Give us a background, the objective of that. So thank you for being on the show. To really understand the purpose of the organization, we really need to understand the market or the industry behind mushrooms. In St. Lucia currently, we import about $1.3 million worth of mushrooms annually. That was during its peak time. It went down during COVID, but at peak we were going about $1.3 million. But that is more of the fresh and chilled mushroom imports. But that's only on the spectrum of opportunity with mushrooms. That's only a small part of it. You can do fresh mushrooms, you can do chilled mushrooms, mushroom products like dried mushrooms, even powdered. And you can go as far as doing things like packaging, leather and electronics from mushrooms. So understanding that great opportunity not only to increase production of mushrooms locally to substitute imports. We understand that there are other job opportunities with that. And speaking to a couple of people, and Alexis and the rest of the team, we understood that we can help increase the number of producers on Island by offering the training because of the technical expertise of Alexis and also create new avenues for young people to find job opportunities. So the Mushroom Collective is here to not only support its members, it supports new job creation, but also looks into R&D and new ways of new opportunities for the use of mushrooms within St. Lucia. When was this organized? This was done about two years ago. It took us a little while to get the whole organization structured. But about two years ago, we finally officially became the Collective. How many members? Currently we have about 30 members internally. But we've also been working with the Ladies from the Reguments Bloom Project, about 25 ladies there and a couple of other young people which we'll hear more about later. But these are also interested in joining the Collective. Okay, great. Okay, Mr. Gabriel, as PRO of course and the support you give to that group and of course the other groups that are on board. Tell us about the two other groups that are on board. I know there are women on board where women bloom. I was also told there's also boys to men. So tell us about those two. Okay, so the women's Bloom Project that we did in conjunction with the Taiwanese Embassy, these women were taught and trained to grow mushrooms. We understand that right now in the world, they focus on growing women in agriculture. So that's where the Women at Bloom came about. So in mushroom production, we try to get them to basically work for themselves, be self-sustainable. Like you clearly said, this is a year of agriculture for the men's health agriculture in Senucia. So once we could actually start to train these women to increase production in mushroom production, they now could say okay, hey, even the fellow farmer could say okay, hey, we're part of a mushroom collective. Why not try to try something new instead of trying to farm and it's more difficult for you. You might be handicapped. It's easier for you to grow mushrooms in that sense. The Boys to Men Project, it could be underprivileged boys like we did at Saafa Boys Training Center and Kei. Again, not everybody could read and write, but there are a lot of kids right now that are more practical. And growing mushrooms would actually help you stay away from the guys because you actually have something to do. And then first you actually own your own business as a mushroom producer. Definitely. So Alexis, I know you've been involved in mushroom production over the years. In fact, you're a pioneer. Just do a brief background about yourself and where you're at with yours and then we'll come to the collective. Okay, my name is Alexis. I'm the owner of Funky Fungai. I started my business not too long ago, about 12 years in the making. Basically, we produce a lot of the oysters that grow in Senucia. Plattus oysters are a family. And we sell it out basically to the hotels, the restaurants, the locals. And the demand has been overwhelming over the last three years. So what were your challenges? Most of the challenges we faced were basic materials, raw materials. So I came up with an IEG and a strategy to maybe alleviate that. I went into basically formulating a few of them, putting few things together so they can actually get me the result I was looking for in the end. And it worked out the best. So what sort of support do you give to the collective? Well, I am the technical coordinator for the collective, also for my own business. So my contribution to the collective is basically training and facilitating the training of the different members and the different groups that we engage in today's business. I noticed some time ago there was a sort of training on your farm, right? Yes. Tell us about that. So it was basically a practical training to facilitate the guys in terms of hands-on field in growing the mushroom. A step-by-step process of the production cycle in terms of the substrate, the production of the substrate. The different attributes when it comes to the growing room, the spawn room, and also a small lab which helps and facilitate the growing of the whole mushroom process. Okay. Going back to the establishment of the two groups. Are they island-wide or are they specific to a location? We're talking about the two groups. Yes. The Where Women's Bloom project. And the first one. The Where Women's Bloom project, we slated people from around the country. From U4, Ansler, so all around. They were selected. We all had to submit a short video with a reason for them to want to be growers. And between the Ministry of Agriculture, the Taiwanese, ICA and ourselves, we were able to select 25 women who showed very strong interest in production. So where are you at now with them? So currently, or just before the current, if the young men, we're looking again across the country. The first cohort with 25 were in the north. The second cohort will have more from the rest of the country. Currently, the women, they're now in the capacity building stage. So we've done the training. We've provided them with grow rooms and grow bags to start the production process. And I was going to test to it how mushrooms may seem very simple to grow. But the process and the maintenance needs to be very meticulous on how you go about doing that. So at this stage, the ladies are just going through that process and learning how to deal with all these challenges going on. And that will help them as they start to increase capacity and they start to build that business out. Okay. So Mr. Gabriel, the question of establishing a grow room. Is it costly or have a cost of production and all material, everything? For somebody starting, especially with the women, the two groups, were they given seed money to start? Well, they were not given seed money, but they were given, I call it seed material. So as part of the collective, we built the structure and provided the grow bags. And the material needed like the water and cans, the pins to actually clean the mushroom bag, bleach bottles. So to make sure everything is sanitary. So they have literally a business was given to them after we did the entire training. So moving forward, in terms of continuity, are you all going to be working with them to take them from point A to point B? Yes, yes we will. I mean, like anything else, you would not just drop them today on devices because they knew to mushroom production. So it's a continuous thing, maybe by monthly or how we can to actually, if they have a problem, they reach out to us. Because again, Alex is the technical person on our team. So now he would go on and see what is the issue. He would speak to him and then would go out and see how we couldn't have any issues that they have. So how have they embraced the program? They've embraced the program really well. And from those programs that we're actually doing, we're actually getting so many calls from overseas to actually do... Replicate it. Replicate it. Like I just came from St. Vincent and the Ministry of St. Vincent and the agriculture actually want to replicate this there. December, same thing in Antigua. We're getting calls from Trinidad, Tengkits, Dominica, Grenada. So we already see how big this is going to be. And again, like you said, the year of production is not just for us. It's Caribbean-wise. Because remember, we now as a Caribbean are trying to increase food production within our agriculture sector. So in terms of marketing, well, you're the main man. I know you're a vigorous marketing person because you and your wife over the years have seen you all very, very vigorous. Tell us about marketing. Well, on the marketing aspect, in terms of the consumer, it is very good. The turnover and I find the overall response when it comes to getting the product from the farm to the customer is overall welcoming. In terms of the marketing, you know already, most of it is like a word of mouth. It goes from one person to the next person to the next person. And over the years, it's been the trend. I would say in terms of market-wise, we normally focus on the local for now. And then we branch it out into the hotels and then to the restaurants. But the biggest consumer of our whole, when it comes to production, production of the mushroom goes directly to our locals. But you're free to cross-talk, even interject. I want to find out, for example, whether you have the... What's important? Is it preferred or the local one is preferred? Because the local one is fresh. Well, from my experience, I find the overall response when it comes to the local mushroom, the freshly grown local mushroom, it's better compared to... And I normally get it on a regular diet. It is much better than in adverse to what they get on the shelf. When you eat a imported mushroom, it's like cardboard. It's like cardboard. When you eat a fresh mushroom, it's like something different. You get all the flavor, you get all the nutrients. You get it basically table fresh. What's the percentage you'll have on the market in Luscia right now? In the market in Luscia right now. I mean, Alexis is currently probably the bigger grower in terms of local production. But in terms of our capacity going forward, we're looking at about over 60,000... About 60,000 pounds of mushrooms over three months. So that's about 20,000 pounds a month. Yeah, that's the capacity of the current people we train in to grow mushrooms. So that's where we're going. But remember that we're not all going to fresh mushrooms because all the variety of products that they could create, tinctures, dried mushrooms, supplements, etc. So we understand that although we import a million dollars of mushrooms, that's only on the first side and there's a lot more that could be going. Great, great, great. Okay, we'll continue with that. We'll do for a break. You are watching agriculture on the move. Stay tuned, we'll be back soon. Happy 45. Uncle Lobo wants you at the committee. Bagaila show. Minister, we call you Nancy E. Food. Festival. Sakaibade. Sir, sir, what are you doing? We're doing everything in this complex. Sons of sea. Uncazui. Happy independence. Sakaisho. Ikaisho. To Bagaila Mabuyo. Sakaisho. Action starts from now. Bagaila Mabuyo. This one is hot. There will be lots of food in the pot. Lots of food booths available. National entertainment. Independence seafood festival. Lakaini Papa Veda. Afuaale. Uletete. Addition. Avot service. Engozi and Tim. Visio ban. And lots more. Ikaibon. Yelele. Ikaibon. Umakaila. Ikaibon. Poesofi. Ikaibon. Lobimodi. Ikaibon. Kids Unavailable. Big Mamas by Fullblast. Sosa Palace Quas. Welcome back to the program. Agriculture on the move of course. We're talking about mushroom production here in St. Lucia. I know right now it's fresh mushrooms that you'll be delivering on Island. But I know there are a number of by-products. Can any of you take on that and tell us exactly where would you want to go the next step? Well for me personally we stay in our ship to our value added. Our tinctures, our hot flavored, garlic flavored, like those are just a few of the by-products coming out of Funky Fondue hopefully soon. We're already into the process of testing it out. We are giving a few sample outs with chefs, locals, restaurants, just to be able to get a general feedback. We're testing the timestamp, the date, the length of time, how long it takes before it, you know it basically runs, it costs. And so far so good. The result we're getting back is A1A. It's basically met with basically a good feeling. Another thing I'm thinking that you all can do is to have maybe a mushroom festival, you know, and come out with a number of those products. And the products you don't know, what do you think? Yeah, we plan to. We plan to. We plan to. Yeah, we plan to. Because again we, our whole goal is a circular economy. Like Richard has said, it's not just growing the mushrooms. The by-product is needed. And again, our whole goal is to reduce waste. Again, the mushroom collective again has collaborated with my company, which is E&E agrochemicals, where we're in the process of creating a fertilizer from it. And then from after that now, the rest of the waste to actually create a container to actually grow the mushroom itself. You understand? You understand. So these are things that we're looking into as part of our R&D to see exactly how we could innovate and keep that circular economy going and keep using just basically environmental-free products and material. Are you looking at, for example, compost material too? Yes, we are. So I mean, as you mentioned, one of the things from the waste product we're looking at is the bio-fritilizers, the compost, the compost tea. So Alexis is currently doing a project right now at the women's compost and how we could create women's compost from that. Eugene worked on the compost tea and also the compost from that. But beyond these ready-made or actually solutions that we can think of generally, I want that really interested me and that's one of the reasons where I, from my personal interest, but also looking at certain, some of the R&D side from the collective, things like leather. You could do leather from mushrooms, vegan leather. That will look at how we introduce fabrics to the mix. And also things like electronics because mushrooms, the mycelium does react to the environment. So therefore, you could use that as to create sensors and circuits, circuit boards. So from the collective standpoint, we also want to start looking at some of these R&D opportunities and look for funding partners to be able to support these R&D opportunities. I mean, you never know. Maybe some time we'll hear about mushrooms in space and the collective will be doing some research on production of mushrooms in space because mushrooms have a very high protein content and they may not be a full meal, but they can actually be part of a full meal and looking at what we could do with food and how our reliance on food. But also looking at reducing and working on the 25 by 25 opportunities that we have, mushrooms could play a big role within that. We're looking at food and additional security and that's what came as part of the package for this year. We want to aim for that 25 by 25. In terms of the continued, you know, getting the information to schools, have you all decided on doing some work in that regard to sensitize the schools? Yes, we have been speaking a lot about that. Again, as part of the Boys to Men project, I said one of the main things was to suffer with community college. So we started there. Later in the year, we started secondary schools to see how the kids themselves react to it. But when you tell a child, you know, have a taste of what she likes. So again, it's a solution. We just have to put in more groundwork. As I mentioned, I just remember what they call it, the myth. What they call it? The name they call it? The power soul job. Power soul job. And the negative. Because it's poisonous. Have you all gotten to that point where people are doubtful and they don't want to go into it, no? Yeah, we are. I have come across a few people that are there. They are being surveyed in terms of eating or consuming mushrooms. And I have informed them that it is not like the past. The information is at the tip of a finger. Now you can basically go and download the app and be able to scan or get some kind of information. Take a photo of the machine and you will see exactly. And then now we provide that, like, that gap. We fill in that gap in terms of getting information in terms of, is this mushroom poisonous? Is this one poisonous? Can we consume this one? And then it will basically and can guide you accordingly and tell you, well, not all mushrooms are edible, but they are signs and different attributes you need to look for in terms of not just going out there and foraging mushrooms. And I do encourage people to go out and foraging mushrooms to consume, because you need to know exactly what you're doing before you can actually go out there and consume them. Look at your R&D. Are you all hoping down the road to prepare for the kind of tech pack? Yes. Yes. So one of the projects we're working on as well is environmental management controls for mushrooms. And that will help with, I mean, we're just working to retrofit in one of the rooms by Funky Fungai to actually do that analysis, understanding the conditions that it needs to grow and how we can control them. And then taking that and creating this production guide that we could enter into the software my company developed so we can now start supporting production beyond just the mentorship and all these things because Alexis is one person, so we need to be able to find other support mechanisms for our members to be able to... What sort of varieties you'll have working with right now? For now, we deal with a lot of Poulaterus oysterers or the oyster family and we're looking to go into agriculture by sport for the button mushroom, the favorite button mushroom and the potabella mushroom. We also have a few medical students like Lyons, Men, Shiitake, Noki. And we tend to want to go down that line because we don't know of the certain of the community companies that are around the place. I mean, we need to try our best to alleviate that. So we want to go down that line in terms of introducing it so that people can absorb it and put it in their diet and maybe have alternative changes in terms of the overall health. Are you also looking at a recipe book? Well, a recipe book would be interesting, the best person to do that for us. I mean, this is our vice president. She's around somewhere. But she's good at cooking. I mean, I've had some of her food and I must admit it's been good. She told me about this. Actually, the pink oysters, how to deep fry them. And that tastes like fish. It was really nice. So I never realized the mushroom region. So I've seen pretty interesting recipes where they've shredded them and used them in chicken replacements. But also, I think as a king oyster and all varieties, we actually use them to create meat alternatives. And using the mycelium from some of the landsmen where they created bacon replacements. So these are interesting products that you can create out of that. You never realize this was mushroom region until you finish eating it. Yeah. But what do you all think of the ways used now? I know it's used in pizza making and stuff like this. But is there any other areas apart from using it fresh at home, like frying or whatever, the dominant way of using mushroom? I've seen, it's funny enough, I was on holiday in Mexico and one thing they did, they introduced into the smoothies. So you could use either the dried mushrooms and then all the powdered ones and introduce that into smoothies as supplements. We've seen them. Can you remember, it's a protein. Yeah. It's a protein sauce. We've seen them use it in oils, in soaps. What else? Chocolate. Yeah, chocolate. I mean, even the psychedelic ones that they've used. In ice cream. For all the stuff. Yeah. And they do have, and again, things like landsmen, she's made the psychedelic ones. They do have... There's medicinal properties. Yes. I'm interested in medicinal properties. Have you gotten any feedback from maybe, in St. Lucia, right, for a particular variety that can be used in medicinal use? Yes. Free in particular. Well, I would say too. The linchie and the lion's mane. Because the lion's mane is responsive. It means attributes to help to repair certain brain cells. So as we get older, we tend to forget and we tend to go into a state of dementia. Dementia. Yeah. All sign language. All sign language. That much you can literally repair the cells within your brain to help you regain your memory. Like I said, you're sitting on a million-dollar thing there. Everything is patient. It's patient. You only need to get it out there. But first, I think it's a livelihood for the various persons out there. It is. And you all see it happening. I mean, are they selling out there the women's bloom and also the boys' to men? Are they in production? Well, for now, we start them up with a setup kit. So they can actually get their hands wet. So they can actually feel everything that was taught to them during training. So they can apply it to that. So far, the feedback I'm getting from basically all the leaders that were participating within that training session that it's not like the ordinary normal day crop. They need to actually apply everything they learned during the training so they can get the results out of what we gave to them. And so far, the feedback I'm getting is OK. And some of them we generally go to them on a regular basis to just get feedback in terms of how you're doing, what's going on. And they would send me some of them. You make it look easy on the firm, but it's not easy. I mean, it's not a typical day on the firm where you have to spend four or five hours, but you have to dedicate an hour to your mushroom growth for you to actually produce properly. I know agriculture has risk and uncertainties. In terms of pests and diseases, do you have a problem in that? Not to say. Most of the pests and diseases that will affect other mushrooms, other fungi. So we have green, yellow, more than the least can go on. And that can be your control. Yeah. Yeah. It's a basic little sanitation of cleanliness, which is certainly a little thing. And you are OK. When it comes to, like, to see other, like, like the norm in the soil, we don't have too much of a big problem. OK. That's about to end. Final words from you? Well, I think this whole thing is to be put into context of the mushroom industry in Indonesia and understand where the collective sits and how we see that industry and how we see our impact. So one thing we're looking at is we're trying to grow mushrooms in this regenerative process. The idea is to use local materials and with the work that Alexis has worked so far and with the help of IKA, start targeting the waste material, whether it be waste banana leaves, waste cardboard boxes, coconut and coca-cocoy, and use these waste inputs. These become the inputs into the whole production process. Alexis has now started to do all these spawn locally as well. So we can actually buy the initial spawn and create our local cultures locally, so then inoculate to go through the process where you then produce mushrooms, have the waste material, use that waste material, which is a spent substrate back into the process and therefore close in that loop for zero waste. Currently we've, I think currently the only area we haven't tackled yet are the plastic bags that we use. Which is on our list. It's on our list to tackle. But also looking to divert waste from the landfill because all the wood chip-ins and everything that we use, all these become important as part of the substrates for that. So as a collective, we're looking at tackling that whole industry, not just production, but looking at what are the other linkages and how we use these to improve the mushroom sector. Wow, wow, wow. So you'll have a task ahead of your level. Yes, we do. Very interesting. We're very afraid. We're very afraid. We're very afraid. So you're well-trained in that regard. Yeah. Well, I think across the team, we have a nice balance of both technical people, people who understand not just mushrooms, but the inputs, some of the business-side business areas do it. And then being able to structure the organization in a way that it can do its job properly. Very good. But also give support to its members. Thank you very much for being here. Of course, Mr Gabriel and Alexis. Thank you all. I wish you all success. I know you all are on the right track. I'm hoping maybe in the next two months to bring all back here to give you some results. I'm hoping in the next two months. I'm hoping in the next two months to send all the ladies. The ladies, yes. Yes, yes. I agree. Thank you all for being here. You've been watching Agriculture on the Move. Thank you for viewing the program. And remember, agriculture is our business. And this year is agricultural year. I'm Philip Sidney, saying goodbye. I'll see you again. Thank you.