Plenty of room to grow at mushroom plant

Hidden among the trees along the Kwinana Freeway in Casuarina is the State’s biggest mushroom producer, the Mushroom Exchange.

The 4.85ha property produces 1.4 million mushrooms each week and employs more than 200 staff.

State manager Irene Bell said she was constantly amazed by the company’s capacity to deliver fresh and delicious produce.

“The facility produces 70 per cent of WA’s mushrooms,” she said.

Ms Bell said mushrooms took up to six weeks to grow in temperature-controlled rooms, between 17c and 20C.

“The first step is to fill wooden creates with 200kg of compost — the mushroom substrate,” she said. “The crates are then stacked are left to grow for about three weeks.”

Operations manager Glenn Kirkwood said the fun began when the mushrooms were fully grown.

“It’s a unique job and no day is the same — fresh produce is certainly challenging,” he said.

Mr Kirkwood said the staff would busy themselves day-in, day-out to harvest the crates, removing the smaller produce to allow bigger mushrooms to thrive.

He said in a 24-hour period the mushrooms doubled in size, so the harvest was critical to maintaining the cycle.

Nothing from the plant is wasted, with the stalks given to sheep farmers as stock feed and the substrate recycled for garden compost.