| 51 PRODUCTION Mercer Mushrooms “We’ve invested in the best infrastructure and processing capability so now we just need more people to work here to operate at peak.” Mercer Mushrooms markets it produce through Foodstuffs with the intention to supply Countdown and other distribution channels when volume permits. Sue Russell For more than 65 years, Holmes has led the engineering industry in invention, creativity, and quality. www.holmesanz.com Winners of the 2021 IStructE Supreme Award. ABC Pipefitters was established in 2003 with the vision to provide quality services in all aspects of the pipefitting/pipe fabrication industry. We are a Kiwi, family-run company with a large team of experienced staff who love to deliver the best pipe solutions at a realistic price for our customers. Mercer Mushrooms & ABC Pipefitters Group Limit We initially worked with Mercer Mushrooms back in 2017, so it was great to be asked to assist in the latest stage of their growth, its always a pleasure to work with their team and with our PM Callam Taka and Foreman Scott Wilson running the ABC pipefitters crew, another successful mission accomplished. The progressive nature of Mercer Mushrooms means further projects are always a possibility and ABC pipefitters will be there to assist anyhow & anyway they need… If we can help you with any of your needs, ask us today for a quote for any of our pipe services ∙ Compressed air ∙ Petrochemical ∙ Oxygen ∙ Chilled water ∙ Wastewater 0800 222 669 ∙ Water treatment processing ∙ Ammonia ∙ Processed water ∙ Steam ∙ Medical Gas ∙ Lubrication systems ∙ Heating water ∙ Brine concentrators ∙ Glycol ∙ Condensing water Finalist 2022 Compost facility a boost for mushroom output After a journey of some years, working through regulations and consenting pathways, Dave Hyland, CEO at Mercer Mushrooms, says the business (owned by Glen Inger) is finally now set up to produce large volumes of mushrooms from its site at Pukekawa, north Waikato. Dave says the key to growing mushrooms is creating compost and for a commercially viable operation an ability to continuously produce top-quality compost, the medium from which mushrooms grow, is vital. Pulling all the pieces together, researching equipment, trips overseas to look at the best of the best technologies, dealing with council and customers has occupied the bulk of Dave’s time, so it is especially satisfying to finally have the compost facility completed and up and running. “We found both regional and district councils supportive of our development so it was just a case of working through regulations to ensure environmental impacts have been addressed appropriately. We’ve invested in the best infrastructure and processing capability so now we just need more people to work here to operate at peak.” And then when Covid arrived just when the boxes had been ticked and construction could get underway, another set of challenges arose. Freighting in from overseas 180 40ft containers from China and Holland came with scaringly increasing costs. “When we started bringing in containers with all the equipment and materials we needed it cost $2,000 to ship a container over. This became $20,000 per container towards the end of the programme given world-wide shortages of importing capacity.” When Business North spoke with Dave late September, the compost plant had finally opened six weeks earlier. Once compost has been cultivated and mushroom spawn added, the growing medium is then conveyor-belted through to the growing rooms. Compost is simply four key ingredients; wheat straw, gypsum, water and chicken manure. The tricky part is getting the process right. Sixteen days after settling on specially built growing shelves, the mushrooms begin to appear. In all, three mushroom harvests from each shelf is grown, then the used compost is removed, the growing room sanitised and the process begins again. It’s a 24/7 all-year-through operation. Currently the volume of mushrooms grown is not at the plant’s peak capacity, driven largely by not enough staff. With sufficient staff upward of 60 tonne of white-button mushrooms each week could be harvested. “We have 55 staff on board at the moment but we’re looking for upward of 150 to really get this site working at peak.” To give a sense of scale, on the growing side there are 18 rooms, each measuring 600m2 and six rooms at 300m2 each. The new composting facility is actually one large dome, imported from Australia and 12 specially designed indoor tunnels from The Netherlands. “We’ve even had some interest from sports organisations and the like who could see the benefit of using a similar technology/ infrastructure on their grounds. Counties/Manukau have been out to have a look at it.” And at the end of its use as a growing medium the compost is not wasted but rather sold to Daltons and to market gardens around Pukekohe to put into the soil. Odours caused through the developing compost stage have been eliminated via negative air pressure fans, an acid scrubber and biofilter all designed to mitigate odour. The plan is, once the plant is fully operational, to expand the offering of mushroom varieties that will be grown. “We market our mushrooms primarily through Foodstuffs currently as well as other horticulture marketing organisations.” The intention is to supply Countdown and other distribution channels when volume permits. So far, there’s gathering interest from the local Facebook community toward working at Mercer Mushrooms, something Dave says is heartening to see. “We always felt if we could expand our site and increase volumes substantially that we would become one of the major employers in the district. I’m certainly keen to see us employ local.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=