Medicinal Mushrooms Market

Medicinal mushrooms are mushrooms which are cultivated for their high nutrient profile of proteins, vitamins, antioxidants and amino acids. Medicinal mushrooms are native to Asia and cultivated on a large scale in this region. The medicinal mushrooms are known for their cure for seasonal allergies, common cold, inflammations, alleviating asthma and bronchitis and boost the functioning of the nervous system.

Due to the growing consumer interest for health food products, especially in North America, distributors are expanding outlets which offer a wide array of functional beverages incorporated with medicinal mushrooms. In 2015, Four Sigmatic Foods, which is a Finnish company specializing in medicinal mushrooms based beverages expanded in the U.S., due to the drastic consumer traction gained within a few years in this region.

Promotion and marketing of these products have worked miracles to boost the growth of the medicinal mushroom market in this region. The consumers’ purchasing patterns towards medicinal food reflect that they are highly inclined to buy new products that offer plentiful health benefits. Hence, the market is also flooded with health magazines and books which offer information about the health benefits of medicinal mushrooms and has raised consumer awareness.

The medicinal mushroom market is in the high growth phase of the product lifecycle and expected to witness a remarkable upsurge over the forecast period. Other converging trends that are supporting the growth of the medicinal mushrooms market are the functional food trend, ancient-eating or authentic foods of ancestor’s, eastern herbal medicine and gut-healthy products.

Medicinal mushrooms happen to meet at the nexus of all these trends. However, all the health claims made in the name of medicinal mushrooms need to be supported by scientific consensus as the next thing consumers focus on, after knowing the health benefits is the medical communities’ opinion.

The most glaring hurdles the medicinal mushroom market faces, is the taste. Medicinal mushrooms’ industrial end users may have to spend extra costs on using a large amount of masking agents to mask their bitter and mud like tastes. As mushrooms are the reflection of the environment they are grown in, sourcing of medicinal mushrooms may become difficult. Also, growers find it extremely difficult to maintain transparency about their products.

The medicinal mushrooms market is segmented on the basis of product type, product form and end use.

Some of the key players operating in the global medicinal mushrooms market are Banken Champignons B.V., Far West Fungi, Hokkaido Reishi Co., Ltd, Swadeshi Mushroom Spawn, Mushroom Table, DXN, Nikkei Marketing Limited, M/S.MAHAGRO INDIA, Chaga Mountain, Inc., Asia Pacific Farm Enterprises, Concord Farms and SSD Mushrooms amongst others.

In 2015, the company Project Juice which is an organic food & beverage company based in California, launched lattes which are infused with medicinal mushrooms in the form of adaptogens. The product includes in the medicinal mushrooms such as chaga and reishi.

Rising consumer awareness and educational marketing is the key strategy that will help the growth of the medicinal mushrooms market. The key demographic for the medicinal mushrooms market is the high-end consumer. The products can be marketed through the fashion magazine, spas and other beauty supplements stores.

The medicinal mushrooms market is expected to witness growth particularly in the developing countries where the shelves of the retail stores are stacked with unusual and rare functional food and beverages. Entering into collaborations with various herbal supplements distributing chains and strategically educate the key demographic may further catalyze the growth of the medicinal mushrooms market.

A modelling-based approach and triangulation methodology will be followed to estimate data covered in this report. A detailed market understanding and assessment of the applications, types, forms and end uses of the product segments covered in the study is followed by carrying out a demand-side approach to estimate the sales of target product segments, which is then cross-referenced with a supply-side assessment of value generated over a pre-defined period. The statistics and data is collected at a regional level, consolidated and synthesized at a global level to estimate the overall market sizes.

Some of the key data points covered in our report include:

• An overview of the market, including background and evolution
• Macroeconomic factors affecting the market and its potential
• Market dynamics, such as drivers, challenges and trends
• Detailed value chain analysis of the market
• Cost structure of the products and segments covered in the study
• In-depth pricing analysis, by key product segments, regions and by major market participants
• Analysis of supply and demand, such as top producing and consuming geographies, imports/exports and overall trade scenario
• Analysis of the market structure, including a tier-wise categorization of key market participants
• Competitive landscape of the market, including detailed profiles of the top players in this market