Mushroom Market in Bangladesh:

Day by day Mushroom production and business increasing day by day. Now more than 200 people are producing mushroom seeds (spawn) and more 10000 people are engaged in mushroom production. On an average, 240 gm from each of the spawn-packets which contained 400-500 gm of substrate and subsequently on an average 264963 spawn-packets were produced per month, which accounts for 620 - 675 tons of edible mushrooms production in Bangladesh per annum. There are 875 farms that produced mushroom all over the country. And the number of their customers is 60000-75000. And the daily average purchase of mushroom is 12000-15000 kg per day. So it is clear that the market of mushroom is not so bad. It has tremendous possibility to success. Number of farms (approx.) Number of customers (approx.) Average daily purchase (kg)

Location
Mymensin gh Dhaka Savar Other Overall

55 12500 550 250 12500 2500 175 7500 1400 395 42500 10550 875 75000 15000 Table-1, Source: Farhad Zamil and Jean Joseph, 2009. Developing small production arid marketing enterprises: mushroom contract farming in Bangladesh.

From this table we can see that most of the firms are situated in Dhaka. There are about 250 firms with 12500 customers. So in Dhaka 28% firms are situated. Then 175 firms are situated in Savar, 55 firms in Mymensing and other 395 firms are situated in other district. But with the compare of the firm, the maximum customers of mushroom are located in Mymensing. Producers are marketing mushroom locally by their own imitativeness. Beside this, supermarkets, shopping malls of different districts and cities even kacha bazaars of different cities are now marketing point of mushroom

Profitability of Mushroom production: From Mushroom production one can make a very good profit. Investing only 10-15 thousand tk, one can earn more than 4-5 thosand t month1. A buyer can buy mushroom in three forms -fresh, dry and powder. Mushroom generally stays fresh for a day and refrigerated mushroom can stay fresh for two three days. Fresh mushroom sells at 80-200 t kg1, dry one at 1000-1200 t kg1 while the powder sells at 1200-1500 t kg1. (Shamim Ara Begum, 2008.)
Table-2, profit per bag of mushroom Item Value per bag Per bag Spore 14 Shared costs of purchasing formaldehyde, hand gloves, knives, polyethylene bags, consumer promotion leaflets 4 Sales of mushroom 150 Net profit 132 Source: Farhad Zamil and Jean Joseph 2009. Developing small production arid marketing

enterprises mushroom contract farming in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh there are 875 firms who produce mushroom, there are around 60000- 75000 customer of mushroom with weekly consumption of 12000-15000 kg. On 2 m2 of shelf space 300 bags of mushroom spore (1.5 kg bag) can cultivate with estimated production cost 9 t kg. For every bag of mushroom spore which purchase cost is 14 t bag1 one can make a profit of tk132. The maximum profit for the production system described above can thus reach Tk120000 per producer over a year. For a under poverty country like Bangladesh it is huge amount to survive and improvement of economical condition.

Table-3, Compared profitability of Rice, Wheat and Oyster mushroom

Item Rice Wheat Oyester Mushroom Expected 1 ton(500 Kg/2 Yiels/4month 2.4/acre 1.6/acre months) Average Price 24000 32000 60000 Total costs 11760 7640 30700 Net Income 12240 24360 29300 Source: Ahmed Imtiaz and Sayed Azizur Rahman, 2008. Economic viability of mushrooms cultivation to proverty reduction in Bangladesh. Tropical and Subtropical Agro ecosystem. 8, 93-99

From this table it was found that cultivation of mushroom is more profitable than rice and wheat. For 4 month there is an opportunity to gain 29300 t from mushroom cultivation, from rice 12240 t and for wheat 24360 t. So mushroom production is so much profitable than other food. Mushroom is also profitable and important for our health. Special elements of some species of mushroom particularly work in preventing diseases like cancer, kidney problems, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma, diabetes, insomnia and tumor. Medicinal mushroom also plays a role in reducing cholesterol and ridding of mental exhaustions. One of the mushroom types called Reishi is being used in AIDS treatment. (Shamim Ara Begum, 2008.)

Mushroom Culivation: Mushroom cultivation is very simple and easy. There is no need of cultivated land. It required small space for cultivation. Mushroom can cultivate in fallow land, courtiyard, roof, varanda and other places.

Source: (Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal et.al. 2009). Mushroom production in Bangladesh: Present

scenario and potentialities, Department of Botany, Jahangir nagor University, Savar, Dhaka. SAARC J. Agri., 7(2):91-105. From the above illustration, we can see that land use for cultivating Mushroom 34% for courtyard, which is actually the general cultivation land for mushroom. On the other hand, people will not like to cultivate mushroom at home. After courtyard land, people use veranda Land for cultivating Mushroom. It is approximately 25% of the total land. On the other hand people only use 5% roof land for their cultivation. The people of Bangladesh also use others land for their mushroom cultivation. It is approximately 17% of the total land. Coroner of the room is also liked for cultivating Mushroom. It is approximately 13% of the total land. But some people use Fallow land for cultivation.

Survey Result and Analysis

Mushroom is a delicious and nutritious food item. It is very much well known all over the world for its taste and nutrition. From the survey, we find that 14 out of 20 people like to take mushroom. Thats mean 70% people like to take mushroom. Among them 40% of people take mushroom for both the reasons nutrition and taste. Only 10% people have mushroom for taste reasons and 20% people take it for nutrition. We also find that 30% people not like to take mushroom, among them 10% not like for superstation and 20% for bad taste.

Mushroom can take in different forms like soup, shacks, curry, medicine, dry etc. About 30% people like Mushroom as a soup, 20% likes as curry, 35% likes as snacks, and 5% people likes in other form. So mushroom has high demand in the form of soup and snacks.

Mushroom is not available to the customer. Mushroom just found some places like Chinese restaurants and superstore. While asked questions to the respondents. We find generally 80% people think mushroom is not available. On the other hand 20% think that it is available. Main problem with mushroom consumption is higher cost of mushroom. Per kg mushroom is sold by 100-150 tk. Form our survey we find that about 85% people believe that mushroom price is high and 15% think it is medium.

There is another problem about mushroom is availability of mushroom. From the survey it is found that about 80% people think that the mushroom is not available to them. And rest 20% think that mushroom is available. So mushroom is not available to the major portion.

Mushroom is a nutritious food item with high food value. Mushroom contains a lot vitamins, protein, minerals etc (Khan et al., 1981). But unfortunately many of us dont know the nutritious important of mushroom clearly. From the survey we can find that 30% people know the nutritious important highly, 45% medium and 20% people dont know the nutritious important of mushroom.

Mushroom is up growing food items in our country. People have an opportunity to improve their economic condition by mushroom production. About 90% people believe that mushroom can improve our economic condition. Mushroom also can play a vital role in our export sector. Because in abroad, there is a huge demand for mushroom. From the survey it was found that 15% people think that the role of mushroom in our export is very high, 45% think that it is high, 40% think that it is medium.

Manly for the improvement of mushroom production and growth, first of all we need government assistance. After taking the government help, we need to improve this by giving more advertisement, giving worlds of mouth to people that Mushroom nutrias and tasty foods. But we found reasonable same but they were more focus on giving knowledge about nutrition of the mushroom was the answer of the improvement. For the illustration we can find that 29% of people support words of mouth or giving knowledge about the nutrition. Only 13% claim that availability of Mushroom is a problem for the growth. Many people almost 24% think more advertisement only can improve the Mushroom growth rate in our country. Many people think pricing and government support are not reasonable for the growth of the Mushroom. People voted 18% for pricing affordability and 16% for government assistance.

Recommendation and Conclusion: Mushroom is very up growing food with higher food value. Mushroom production is also very profitable than other vegetable. With the little space one can produce lot of mushroom and increase their income level. Mushroom production also can improve our poverty level. But to improve mushroom sector first we have decrease its cost and improve its availability to its customer. We have to also improve the advertisement of mushroom. We have to increase the knowledge about the nutritious value of mushroom in the peoples mind. Government also should come forward to improvement this sector. We believe that mushroom can be an important issue for our economic improvement and export for our country.

Bibliography: Chung, H.C., Y.H. Park and Y.S. Kim, 1981. Basic Information on the Characteristics of Strains of Oyster Mushroom. Korean J. Mycol., 9:129132 Nasrin Jahan, Mahbuba Moonmoon and Md. Mofakrul Islam 2010. Growers Response to Mushroom Cultivation Technologies Disseminated by Mushroom Development Project. Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh Farhad Zamil and Jean Joseph 2009. Developing small production arid marketing enterprises: mushroom contract farming in Bangladesh Khan, S.M., Kausar, A.G . and Ali, M.A 1981, yield performance of paddy straw in Pakistan, Mushroom Sci-II(I) : 675-687.
Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal, Fauzia Begum and Abul Khair, 2009. Mushroom production in

Bangladesh: Present scenario and potentialities, Department of Botany, Jahangir nagor University, Savar, Dhaka. SAARC J. Agri., 7(2):91-105. Ahmed Imtiaz and Sayed Azizur Rahman, 2008. Economic viability of mushrooms cultivation to proverty reduction in Bangladesh. Tropical and Subtropical Agro ecosystem. 8, 93-99
Shamim Ara Begum, 2008. The financial Express, Thursday January 31, 2008.