A Sustainable Specialty Mushroom Cultivation System
Approved for funding in ERA’s Food, Farming, and Forestry Challenge in 2021, Ceres developed a system to sustainably produce mushrooms for the Alberta market. The first commercial demonstration of Ceres’ system was achieved by project completion in 2024, with plans to further increase mushroom production for export. Ceres developed a system to use agricultural byproducts as a growing medium for specialty mushroom cultivation. The technology converts a variety of local biomass byproducts that would otherwise be wasted into a substrate to produce gourmet mushrooms. This mushroom production also offsets mushrooms that would otherwise be imported to Alberta via air freight from BC, Ontario, China, and Korea. Production efficiencies enable large amounts of high quality, affordable mushrooms are produced with small production footprint, minimal utility use, and minimal waste. The project aimed to scale speciality mushroom production to commercial size to demonstrate Ceres’ mushroom cultivation system with industry leading process automation, data collection, climate control systems, and processing systems.
Ceres Successfully Scaled Mushroom Production to Commercial Size
Ceres constructed a 6,000 sq. ft. facility known as Crossfield Farm near Calgary, Alberta to demonstrate the mushroom cultivation system at scale. Ceres scaled up production and successfully demonstrated the processing technology. Ceres was able to supply the Alberta market with high-quality, affordable specialty mushrooms and add value to local biomass byproducts. The project tested and improved the substrate process, secured sales channels with major distributors, and realized positive environmental benefits. The project discovered efficiencies using a denser substrate, along with organic and food safety complications, that shifted the project from spent grain as a growing medium. Ceres achieved Safe Quality Food (SQF), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), and organic food safety certifications to begin selling at volume. During the project, substrate processing times were reduced significantly, cost of production was lowered, and by completion, Ceres was producing 4,000 lbs of fresh mushrooms per week. Ceres is now the largest grower of specialty mushrooms in the Canadian prairies.
What’s next?
Ceres plans to expand its production of fresh and value-added specialty mushroom products. Once production is maximized, Crossfield Farm will produce between 5,400 and 6,000 lbs of fresh mushrooms per week. Ceres plans to add additional space at the farm to increase weekly output to 10,000 lbs. They also aim to embark on a new project involving the formulation and processing of a new line of value-added mushroom products, involving a variety of ready to eat products. During the course of the project, it was discovered there is a market for producing a substrate – the base material for mushroom production – that would otherwise be imported. Because of the technology developed in the project, Ceres can address this emerging opportunity to expand production of substrate for internal use and national and international export. To do this, Ceres is planning to increase mushroom production and further scale the substrate processing technology with a new Alberta facility. This will require additional investment to increase scale and reach of the technology demonstrated in the project and further commercializing the systems to be internationally competitive.