Scale Up Mushroom Block Making - Continuous Processing Development

Over the last year Gareth Griffith-Swain has established Fungi Foods as a new mushroom business operating within Tyn yr Onnen Farm LLP in Waunfawr, Gwynedd.

In May 2024 Gareth's dried lions mane mushrooms were selected by Aldi as a new product and category as part of the Channel 4 programme Aldi's Next Big Thing. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/aldis-next-big-thing/on-demand/75707-003

The mushrooms are grown, processed and packed at the main Tyn yr Onnen site and growing demand is coming in from other leading supermarkets and brands, for both fresh and processed exotic mushrooms. However, growing capacity is severely limited by the availability of mushroom blocks.

In October 2023, the owner of the only established mushroom block maker in Wales, on the Llyn peninsula, was looking to retire. Tyn yr Onnen then agreed to purchase the block making business, which has operated for many years in Chwilog near Pwllheli, to secure its own supplies of mushroom blocks and expand their wholesale blockmaking business supplying other UK based farm businesses with small scale growing.

A team of 5 are currently employed by Tyn yr Onnen on blockmaking and 50% capacity expansion has already been achieved in 2024\.

The current block making processes can be described as artesanal and are labour intensive. The future development and scale-up of Fungi Foods as an integrated operation relocated to Waunfawr provides the opportunity to re-design the blockmaking processes with appropriate agri-tech that can deliver not only scaled-up production (i.e. up to 10 times current volume levels) but critically, high levels of automation and efficiency.

This project proposal therefore is aimed at developing and testing the options for the series of new processes that will be required for the new integrated blockmaking operation in Waunfawr.