By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): Two new mushroom species and a new record of a mushroom species have been identified from Sri Lanka.
The new species of mushroom were discovered by Dr. Aseni Navoda Ediriweera from the Mae Fah Luang University in Thailand, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and her research team.
The research was guided by Professor Samantha C. Karunarathna. The new species from Sri Lanka have been named as Candolleomyces ruhunensis and Termitomyces srilankensis.
A new record of Crepidotus striatus was reported from the wet zone of Sri Lanka, mainly in Kanneliya, and it previously only recorded in China.
“In 2023, we discovered two new mushroom species and a new record of a species. Sri Lanka’s records on mushrooms date back to the 1700s.
It was only after the year 2000, that a proper research on mushrooms was carried out. This is also the first time that a mushroom species was named after a university.
This was the first record of a Candolleomyces species. In addition, we also discovered Termitomyces srilankensis.
The other record was of Crepidotus striatus from the Kanneliya forest. This is the second ever record of this species. It was identified as a new species in China,” elaborated Dr. Aseni Navoda Ediriweera.
Market prices for Sri Lanka mushrooms have varied across the years. Before 2019, one kilo of mushrooms was going for US$7.50 in 2017 and US$5.67 in 2018. In 2019 the export price changed to $5.00 per kilo, by -11.765%.
Some of the best performing markets in 2019 for Sri Lanka mushrooms for each kilo were fetched from exports to Australia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Maldives.
The exports of mushrooms from Sri Lanka are categorized as:Mushrooms of the genus “Agaricus”, prepared or preserved otherwise than by vinegar or acetic acid (HS code 200310).
The other varities were Dried mushrooms of the genus “Agaricus”, whole, cut, sliced, broken or in powder, but not further prepared (HS code 071231)Mushrooms of the genus “Agaricus”, provisionally preserved, e.g., by sulphur dioxide gas, in brine, in sulphur water or in other preservative solutions, but unsuitable in that state for immediate consumption (HS code 071151)
The total values in export for mushrooms in Sri Lanka were US$ 14, US$ 15, US$ 51 and US$ 78 in US dollar thousand for the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 in that order.
