Posted on 09/16/2007 2:02:29 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Matsutake mushrooms imported from China have been shunned by consumers this year due to concerns over the safety of Chinese food.
Some stores have switched to selling matsutake from North America after seeing the sales of Chinese imports fall by half from last year.
One retailer expressed regret about the fall in sales of matsutake--the mushroom touted as the king of autumn food--saying: "The quality of Chinese matsutake is good. So I can't understand why sales are so bad."
Saitama-based Co-op Net, an organization comprising consumers' cooperative societies in Tokyo and seven neighboring prefectures, stopped selling Chinese matsutake in August, despite having sold such imports until last year.
"With distrust in Chinese food safety growing, we've determined there is little demand [for Chinese matsutake] among members of our cooperatives," a Co-op Net spokesman said.
Sales of Chinese matsutake at Hankyu Department Stores Inc.'s Oi Shokuhinkan store in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, have plunged more than 50 percent both in value and volume from last year.
Since mid-August, the store has offered 100-gram packs of two to three Chinese matsutake for 800 yen to 1,000 yen, but despite being cheaper than usual, fewer customers have bought them.
A Hankyu employee in charge of selling vegetables said many customers have asked employees at the store about the safety of Chinese fruit and vegetables, in addition to queries about matsutake.
In September, another department store in Tokyo replaced Chinese matsutake, following poor sales in July and August, with those from North America and South Korea.
According to the Forestry Agency, last year's matsutake imports from China stood at 1,198 tons, accounting for about 70 percent of such imports.
Companies importing Chinese matsutake are required to check whether the amount of herbicide on the mushrooms is below the legally required level.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's quarantine stations also examine samples to ensure safety.
However, with growing concerns over China's food safety, even sales of Chinese eels have fallen.
An employee of Tokyo Seika Co., a wholesaler in Ota Ward, Tokyo, said that unlike last year, this year has produced a good crop of matsutake in China, ensuring prices were reasonable, but retailers complained that Chinese food products are being shunned because of their bad image and that even low prices cannot boost sales.
Domestic production of matsutake came to 64.8 tons two years ago, but this year, their growth has been delayed by the hot summer and drought.
As such, domestic matsutake are five times to 10 times more expensive than Chinese matsutake.
With consumers unwilling to buy low-price Chinese matsutake due to food safety concerns, and falling domestic production pushing up prices, the price of the vegetable is likely to become unaffordable for many.
Best line from the Consumer Product Safety Commission hearings held in the Senate: Sen. Brownback’s comment that these days “Made in China” is a warning.
Guess you reap what you sow..
These mushrooms taste like shitake!
I opened up a container of these Chinese mushrooms, and I knew that they were bad. It was nothing but fungus!
The Chinese are spore loosers.
Mushroom Sales Shrivel
Are these the ones they grow in raw sewage? I can’t stand even the thought of eating ANY food from China, and if I had kids, they sure wouldn’t play with any toys made in China!
BS, they know what is wrong. They are poisening everyone with their products.
” Are these the ones they grow in raw sewage? “
Huh ??? They are grown under trees just like any other mushroom .
Anyone who still buys mushrooms from China should be investigated, to find out who they plan to feed them to.
Evidently you didn't read the article about some of their food being grown in, or fertalized in raw sewage? Yum Yum! Just the thought of it has me lickin' my lips. LOL! Riiiight! ;o)
Commercially grown mushrooms are not grown under trees.
Ever hear the expression : They treat me like a mushroom----- Keep me in the dark and keep feeding me sh!t?
Looks like a niche that small American farms can fill!
They said they couldn't get them to reconstitute without being like rubber.
I tried too, and they were still like rubber. Soaked over night, boiled, fried, etc.
I noticed the bag said "Product of Korea and/or China". I dumped the mushrooms into the garbage disposal.
I know they're not. I have a friend in Arkansas who grows mushrooms. He grows his inside a big barn type of building in trays, and they are grown in the dark. He also grows the kind that grow on a log. I 'think' those are called Shitake.
Ever hear the expression : They treat me like a mushroom----- Keep me in the dark and keep feeding me sh!t?
I hadn't heard that expression before, but it's the truth. ;o)
“Huh ??? They are grown under trees just like any other mushroom .
Evidently you didn’t read the article about some of their food being grown in, or fertalized in raw sewage? Yum Yum! Just the thought of it has me lickin’ my lips. LOL! Riiiight! ;o)”
Sorry, NRA but Sushiman is right. Matsutake is a Japanese name and means Pine Mushroom. Pine as in pine tree.
My wife is a big-time fan of matsutake and says the main reason the Chinese matsutake are not selling is they do not seem to have the aroma or flavor like the excellent matsutake from Oregon, Washington and also Canada.
The cost of these things is outrageous. We just sent some U.S. matsutake to Japan for just about $100.00 per pound.
When we still livedin Delaware we went to the mushroom farms along the DE/PA state line on a regular basis to get them fresh -— the aroma/odor of manure permeates everything.
The mushroom barns look very similar, from the outside, to chicken houses.
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