Dutch Mushroom Center in development at Brightlands Campus Venlo

Mushroom Valley in Venlo has been working for three years on new insights in the field of research, education and development in the mushroom sector. At the partner meeting last week, they looked back on the first three years and thought about the steps for 2020. The realization of a Dutch Mushroom Center, an international knowledge center, is one of those steps.

Focus

The international platform Mushroom Valley has not been idle in recent years. After the kick-off in 2017, National Mushroom Day followed a year later. And in 2019, Mushroom Valley was visible at the International Mushroom Days in Den Bosch with the project "Do you get that high from mushrooms?".

The commitment to both branding, education, innovation, network, big data and market, however, gave the partners the feeling that there was not enough focus in the activities. After an intensive discussion about the direction to take, the partners decided to give Mushroom Valley a follow-up with more focus on involvement and visibility.

Training

Mushroom Valley will continue to develop into the knowledge center for the global mushroom sector. This means the realization of a Dutch Mushroom Center at the Brightlands Campus Greenport in Venlo. The coming year is reserved for the further elaboration of the plans. The realization is planned for the following year at the latest.

Training for new professional specialists will be central to the realization of the new mushroom center. Global developments are making mushroom production grow rapidly. Jack Lemmen of GTL-Europe said, "Due to the rapid growth, there is a worldwide need for professionals in any part of the chain. Training is what connects us all so put your focus on that."

In cooperation with Mushroom Office, Mushroom Valley is taking on the challenge of realizing this ambition. Mark den Ouden of Mushroom Office: "Through our newly developed E-course Mushroom Signals Essentials as a basis and the Mushroom Signals Extended for the advanced (to be published next year) an increasingly complete training for new (international) professionals is being rolled out. Combining these courses with a live training with company visits in the Netherlands creates new opportunities for the high quality supply companies. Together with Mushroom Valley we can quickly expand the reach in the mushroom world, to actually reach everyone where knowledge is needed."

Podium

The development of a Dutch Mushroom Center will act as a magnet to the international world, enticing it to acquire the knowledge at Brightlands. Jan Klerken, founder of Scelta Mushrooms: "A physical Dutch Mushroom Center is a podium where gastronomy, education, promotion and new developments go hand in hand."

The Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo is dedicated to healthy food and with a chair "Healthy Food for Youth" and the Kids University for Cooking "Kokkerelli" is an ideal breeding ground to give the mushroom a stage. Director Saskia Goetgeluk of the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo: "The Dutch Mushroom Center is a wonderful development and fits well within the campus where it revolves around healthy and safe food. It not only stimulates knowledge development and dissemination, but will also give the regional connection a positive impulse."

Also member of the Provincial Executive Hubert Mackus applauds the development: "The mushroom is the example of healthy and sustainable food and this cluster of entrepreneurs visibly gives substance to the Brightlands idea of cooperation."