On Friday 13 April 2018, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander has opened CNC Grondstoffen's new Indoor Fresh Compost factory in Milsbeek, the Netherlands.

Indoor Fresh Compost is a high quality and environmentally friendly ingredient for phase III compost. All 32 tunnels at the new factory started operating at the end of December 2017, so that all phase III compost currently produced by CNC Grondstoffen is based on the Indoor Fresh Compost procedure with an optimal process duration.

CNC Grondstoffen processes more than 600,000 tons of horse manure, chicken manure and gypsum annually to create high quality compost, or substrate, used to grow mushrooms. CNC Grondstoffen is one of the five companies that form CNC Holding. This group of companies has eight branches in the Netherlands and Poland and sells substrates for mushroom growing in more than 30 countries.  

Circular economy

The production process that transforms manure into substrate is environmentally friendly. By fully reusing manure – which is actually a waste product –  as an input resource CNC Grondstoffen contributes to the circular economy. During the production process, air scrubbers remove ammonia emissions. The ammonia recovered in this way is reused in the production processes. To neutralise the odour of manure, CNC Grondstoffen uses bark-filled biobeds which contain micro-organisms that absorb the odours. The end product is a sustainable, high quality substrate for mushroom growing. The location of the factory, which facilitates fewer road transport kilometres, also reduces CO2 emissions by two million kilos per year.

Photo caption:
•Official opening new Indoor Fresh Compost factory CNC on April 13, 2018 by King Willem-Alexander and Tom van Wijk, director CNC Grondstoffen BV.
•Guided tour through the new factory.

Recently, in Bamboo fungus base of Zhengping Village, Changning County, Sichuan Province of China, Bamboo fungi are evolving into peak fruiting season while growers are orderly engaged with the picking and drying work.

“In early 2018, we decidedly launched into Bamboo fungus industry relying on advantageous environmental and resource superiority. Now, gross cultivation capacity reaches 25,000 mu within the county, annual strain production hits 15 million bags, gross output on dried Bamboo fungi comes to 1250 tons while direct gross output value attains over 500 million CNY,” said related principal from Agricultural Bureau of Changning County courteously.

Now, in Morel base managed by Shanxi Yangling Hengshen Agriculture Cooperative, Morels reveal satisfactory growth trend, which indicates the bumper harvest.

Morel mushrooms are edible while they hold high requirement on cultivation environment and require tough cultivation difficulty. In China, artificial Morel cultivation keeps on leading tardy development trend.

On September of 2017, Shanxi Yangling Hengshen Agriculture Cooperative which sets scientific research, strain cultivation and supply into one was set up. Now, it absorbs 3 greenhouses. Generally, fixed cost on each mu of land reaches 7000 CNY or so, mu output attains 100-200 kg while mu conservative earnings hit 20,000 CNY or so, which shows considerable profits.

Next step, the cooperative proposes to provide source and technology of superior strain, offer guidance and create more significant revenues for growers.

At present, in mushroom house owned by Mr. Zhang, Button mushrooms are successively coming into season.

According to know, Mr. Zhang lives in Longtou Village, Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province of China, over the years, he insists on seizing stone material factory as the main industry. However, along with the transformation and upgrading of the industry, low-end and stale mode becomes the development bottleneck of Longtou Village.

In early 2016, Longtou Village started to guide farmers to embark on Button mushroom cultivation, and in order to promote standardized production better and arouse the enthusiasm of growers, village collective provided cultivation site for them and helped solve necessary infrastructures.

“Growth temperature for Button mushroom should be at 14-20 degrees Celsius. Compared with other regions, temperature of Longtou Village is more balanced and two seasons’ of fruiting could be realized per year, which precisely meets the requirements of winter mushroom markets,” introduces secretary of Longtou Village passionately.

By the end of 2017, 48 high-standard Button mushroom greenhouses were built within Longtou Village, 38 households were driven to launch into mushroom cultivation and gross output amounted to 1 million kg. In addition, above 700,000 CNY was raised on establishment of strain factory that occupies 400 square meters, and 9 strain-cultivation cabinets of Button mushroom. Next step, the village is going to build another 50 greenhouses, introduce drying and deep-processing technology, strives to build a green, organic, ecological and circular agriculture that integrates strain cultivation, production, R&D and processing into one.