Mushroom grower Sikes from Ysselsteyn embraces the concept of recycling

Nearly two years ago, the ground was broken at the mushroom farm of Gerard Sikes of Ysselsteyn to build the first production location of the Organic Nutrition Centre, consisting of a biomass power station and champost drying facility. Nieuwe Oogst took a look at the mushroom farm and spoke with the entrepreneur about the choices he is making for his business.

Sikes (49) grew up on an arable farm, his wife Karin (49) on a mushroom farm. In 1988 they got into mushroom farming together. "A nursery was for sale, but we could have bought a sandwich store or opened a bicycle store," says Sikes. "What matters to us is doing business together." Every morning, around eight o'clock, the couple sits down together at the table to discuss all current affairs and the day ahead. "A healthy relationship is the basis for our business. My wife gives feedback, is my complainer and teacher."

Having fun

Sikes has a big business. The now two nurseries are good for 340 tons of mushrooms per week. There is also a transport branch with 25 trucks to bring the own mushrooms to the processors and to support mushroom growers in Limburg and Germany. The three children of Sikes are 16, 18 and 20 years old. All have ambitions to work in the company. "What they need to be able to do for that? Nothing more than being able to deal with people, think logically and have a zest for it."

Circulation thought

Since a few years, Gerard and Karin Sikes have been focusing on a third branch within the company: the Organic Nutrition Centre. With the construction of the wood-fired biomass plant and the compost drying facility, the family is embracing the circular thinking. By 2022, the entire farm will be able to produce CO2-neutral mushrooms by generating ten megawatts of electricity and utilizing residual heat. "What I think is important is that as an agricultural sector, whether it is manure or mushroom, we solve our own problems structurally. What's left over from cultivation is 60 percent water. We want to dry that, press it into granules and deposit it as organic matter."

History Chest

Organic matter can be transported cheaply around the world in its dried form. "If you are getting tea from Asia, in my experience it is a step forward to send organic matter back on the boat. Yet we are already thinking steps ahead: how nice it would be to deposit organic matter in our own village, in every garden and on every tree."

Initiatives such as an eco-friendly funeral coffin made from mycelium (mushroom flock) from which mushrooms grow, enthuse the entrepreneurs. "We could grow it up perfectly as a wood substitute in the future. Then we would use trees to run the biomass power plant and eventually deliver back construction material in addition to mushrooms."

Confidence

Who thinks that things have always gone well for the Sikes family from Ysselsteyn is wrong. The start of their entrepreneurial life was anything but easy. Due to overproduction, their customer insisted on vacancy. "Then you see things go wrong," the Limburg entrepreneur looks back. "Yet I had faith that the market would pick up again. I then started talking to a grower in the neighborhood: do you buy me or do I buy you? It became the second option and the bank was willing to finance."

Where mushroom growers at the time often harvested three times on the same expensive compost, Sikes decided to go to two flights. "It was a pretty simple calculation, because the longer you used the compost, the lower the yield. Instead of growing 47 kilos of mushrooms every six weeks, we switched to 40 kilos every four weeks. That way we were able to save on the cost price; it is now the standard in mushroom country."

Jump to the front

The whole day working in the climate cells or sitting in the office is wasted on Karin and Gerard Sikes. "In a growing company you quickly come to a fork in the road: either you get swallowed up by all the work or you make the leap forward. We've recruited a lot of employees who are independent and have a lot of responsibility. If I look at the weekly figures for five minutes, I really know how things are turning out."

The fear that a low-wage country like Poland will completely take over the production of mushrooms, the entrepreneur does not have. "We are much better educated here, we have a lot of knowledge about the sector and we are a trading country. Many small nurseries have stopped, are working together or have been taken over and what remains is a healthy, strong sector," concludes the Limburger. "My motto is: innovate, undertake and take your environment with you."

Source: New Harvest