If I was a Polish mushroom grower with an eye on the UK market, I would be delighted to hear that the Irish industry, prompted by its food board Bord Bia, plans to join forces with its British and Dutch counterparts to launch a generic promotional campaign in 2005-06.

There is of course still a long way to go before there is even an initial agreement between the three interested industries. And then the next step would be how to tap into the EU petty cash box kept for such activities.

Indeed it may not even be correct to assume that while a large proportion of UK production is actually now owned by the Irish, there will be immediate agreement.

Getting money out of producers at any time is always difficult. It is all the harder given that UK production has fallen drastically since the days when I was a cub reporter. Then, the Mushroom Growers’ Association was always happy to point out that our national industry was so large the UK was virtually self-sufficient.

Today, as a report expected from Warwick University is expected to show later this year, UK tonnage has reduced to the point where it only accounts for about 60 per cent of total volumes consumed, and growers are still going out of business.

So if everyone agrees and a campaign gets off the ground, and if there is the hoped for surge in demand - where will the extra production capacity come from?

No one doubts such good intentions in the name of marketing, but I have often wondered whether any generic effort other than the singularly successful Banana Group - and we have experienced a few covering citrus, olive oil, and even apples - ever achieve anything.

Until now no one to my knowledge, other than the Banana Group, has ever said overall consumption has increased. Consumer awareness - unless it is associated with food scares - can be so ethereal that it vapourises even before the products arrive on the shelves. And the fact EU funding only allows very limited reference to source, hardly helps.

For me the broader issue is that the mushroom sector has become widely segmented with a range of cheap and more exotic lines.

The same point was made of tomatoes at last week’s Tomato Growers’ Association conference. The industries share some other similarities.

Both also feel competition is likely to increase, and pressure from retailers on price is here to stay.

The TGA, like the MGA, which has spread its message for over 40 years, should equally be applauded for hammering home the British is Best message. But how many consumers of either product actually know or care about the source?

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