tuoksuvalmuska

männyntuoksuvalmuskaa on Kainuussa..ja joskus aika runsasssatoinen mäntykankailla

Kainuu ja valoisat jäkäläkankaat on nimenomaan oikea paikka etsiä tuoksuvalmuskaa! Männyntuoksuvalmuska ei kai lajilleen (niitä on useita tuoksuvalmuskoja) ole juuri se "matsutake", mutta näitäkin kuulemma viedään Jaappaniaan. Kannattaa kuitenkin selvittää toimituskanavat ennen liikoja haaveiluja. Muuten, jos tuoksuvalmuskaa kerää Japaniin, IKINÄ ei saa perata. Sieni pitää poimia varovasti kokonaisena ja vaurioitumattomana maastosta ja pakata erikseen. Jaappanialaisilla on oma rituaalinsa valmistaa ja leikata sieni.

tuoksuvalmuska on aika uusi tuttavuus, kysyisinkin onko kukaan sitä tavannut täällä etelä-karjalassa. olen tarponut hiekkakankailla, enkä ainakaan tänä syksynä ole siihen törmännyt. onko harvinaisuus yleensäkin??

Hello,

My name is Niclas Bergius I live in Sweden and have been working with Tuoksuvalmuska/matsutake since 1998.

If you visit this link you can find more information about my work: http://www.mykopat.slu.se/ex/Niclas/matsutake.html

Since 1999 I have been visting Suomi for some days every August to be able to pick Finnish matsutake.

During the last years a Swedish export of matsutake to Japan has been built up. Now the Japanese importer are very interested to get more information about Finnish matsutake. So, if some skilled mushroom-picker (or even better, a group of skilled mushroom-pickers) living in central or northern Finland are interested in creating a Finnish matsutake export, please do not hesitate to contact me.

[email protected]

Yours sincerely

Niclas Bergius



Below I will try to explain a little more about matsutake and Japan. This is a long text, but I hope that you will read it.


First I will start with a short background about myself. I am a biologist and started to work at the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) in 1997. At that time I was working with cultivation techniques of the golden chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), at this link you will find more information about this project: http://www.mykopat.slu.se/mycorrhiza/kantarellfiler/texter/prod1.phtml

At 1998 I started to work with tuoksuvalmuska/matsutake, and in 2000 I left SLU and started to work for a commercial company named Matsutake AB, the company was started due to the good matsutake-season in Sweden during 1998. At that year some people picked several 100 kilos of matsutake in northern Sweden. The main focus of Matsutake AB is to be able to develop the technique for cultivation of matsutake, so that we will be able to cultivate matsutake in the future. At the beginning Matsutakake AB also was involved in the export of matsutake from Sweden to Japan. But, after some years the company lost interest in that activity. Then (in 2003) a group of skilled mushroom-pickers in the Skellefteå-area started to export matsutake instead. I am one of the members in that group.

During my work with matsutake I have been to Japan three times, and I plan to go there one more time next year. In Japan a have met a lot of matsutake-scientists and also a lot of matsutake-importers. A have also studied matsutake growing in the Japanese forests, for more information visit this link: http://www.mykopat.slu.se/ex/Niclas/trip/trip.html
I have also been host for several visits to Sweden by Japanese scientists and importers. And they were all impressed by the high quality matsutake.

And yes, it is possible to find matsutake for sell in Japan that costs around 1000 euro per kilo. But (and this is a very big but), this is top-class Japanese matsutake sold during the right season (the right season starts in late September). Every year Japan imports around 3300 tonnes of matsutake, mostly from Korea and China but also from Canada, USA, Morocco and Turkey. The best foreign matsutake is the one from South-Korea. South-Korean matsutake of good quality costs around 150 euro per kilo in Japanese shops during the right season. Japanese matsutake is always 5-10 times more expensive than any imported matsutake. If you would like to know more about this I can send some information, otherwise you can ask the Finnish embassy in Tokyo about information.

Japanese people are very traditional and the Japanese food is special for every different season. The Japanese matsutake-season starts in late September, at this point the matsutake prices doubles (at least). During this period most Japanese people want to eat matsutake at least one time, the matsutake is seen as a symbol of the autumn, It is also symbolize fertility, good fortune, and happiness. It has been eaten by Japanese people for more than a millennium and has become more than just a seasonal delicacy.

The main season for Swedish matsutake is from early August to mid-September, this is before the “right season” in Japan. But still Swedish matsutake of good quality is sold in Japanese shop for around 110 euro per kilo, I think that this is a very good price level. The Swedish pickers get around 17 euro per kilo for good quality matsutake. I think that this will increase to around 22 euro per kilo in the coming years, as soon as the Japanese customers are starting to get more knowledge of the high quality of the matsutake from the Nordic countries. According to this it is important to keep in mind that the freight cost is paid by the Swedish side, the freight cost is around 33 euro per kilo mushroom when you send smaller amounts.

At the starting point for the Swedish matsutake-export we had a lot of contacts with several big Japanese importers. The big companies very not willing to pay as much as our new small
scale importer does. The big companies also claimed that we should send at least 50-100 kilo of matsutake at every shipment. The importer that we have used during the last years is also owner of a famous matsutake shop. In this way we can reduce the number of people involved in the chain, and thus of course increase the price-level for the pickers. The big companies sell their mushroom to the matsutake shops and demands profit on very kilo of matsutake, we do not need that step anymore. Nowadays a shipment does not have to consist of more than 10 kilos of matsutake.

I met the current importer first time when I was Japan in 1999. Since then we have kept contact.

My goal with this “Finnish-campaign” is not to make money. The goal is to increase the amount of matsutake sent from Scandinavia to Japan. If the amount increases more and more customers will get to know about Nordic matsutake and the price level will rise. This will be good for both our countries. If you are interested in exporting matsutake I will put you in contact with the Japanese importer. And if you like I will help you to make the first test shipment. Then I will not be any part of the business no more.

If you like I can help to contribute with packing-material for a test shipment of Finnish matsutake. We have plenty of specially designed cooling-boxes and a lot of other useful material. Do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in this material.

Of course the Swedish exporters make a profit on the actual export. Most matsutake are being picked by the actual exporters, but some are bought from some local pickers that are not involved in the export.

So the price I mentioned is the price that the pickers not connected to the "mushroom picking network" gets when they sell matsutake to the network. So the pickers connected to the network gets a higher price-level per kilo. How much more they get I will discuss with people that are really interested in exporting Finnish matsutake.

This was a long text, but I think this is the best way to be able to give a picture of the matsutake-business. I hope that you understand my point.

If you have any questions or remarks, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Yours sincerely

Niclas Bergius