Food Quality Award for Baltinglass Mushroom Grower

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Food Quality Award for Baltinglass Mushroom Grower

Wednesday, April 11 2007

When Leslie Codd went into growing mushrooms in Baltinglass after leaving school, little did he realise that his farm enterprise would go on to become not only the largest mushroom supplier in the republic, but a top award winner. His company Codd Mushrooms has just scooped the top accolade for food quality in its category the winner of the Bord Bia Best Mushroom Grower Award at a special presentation ceremony in Citywest, Dublin last week.

The award is part of the National Horticultural Food Quality Awards, which recognises excellence and exception standards in the production and handling of fresh produce. Codd Mushrooms were joint winners with Kiernan Mushrooms of Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan.

Leslie concentrates on the domestic market and his business output 40 tonnes of premium mushrooms every week. Leslie exclusively supplies mushrooms to the Aldi chain of super-stores. He also supplies wholesalers for the catering and hotel industry.

“I am from a farming background but I never actually farmed myself,” Leslie says. “When I left school I decided that I would go into mushroom production and that was 19 years ago.”

Codd Mushrooms are grown on the family’s land in Dowling’s, Tullow and on the Hacketstown to Carlow road. They also grow at the company’s packaging plant at Lathaleere Industrial Estate in Baltinglass. The company does its own marketing from the Baltinglass plant and even has a fleet of lorries for the distribution of its product.

The whole process takes roughly about six weeks from when the crop is sowed to harvest and packaging. All their seed is sourced in Ireland.

“We have a good team,” he concedes. “At the moment the company is employing 52 staff. The majority of these are Eastern European. We are also the largest supplier of mushrooms to the Irish market.

“This award is a great achievement for us. It’s an All-Ireland award and it is highly sought after.”

When Leslie first went into business he used to supply the UK market. About ten years ago he decided to concentrate solely on the domestic market for a number of reasons but mainly because so that the business wouldn’t be at the mercy of exchange rates.

The Bord Bia National Horticultural Awards lay down strict standards in codes of practice, handling, packaging, preparation, storage and transport of produce. The award winners are chosen following independent adjudication by the National Standards Authority of Ireland to make sure the contenders are in compliance with these standards.

Chairperson of An Bord Bia, Angela Kennedy said: “Since the inception of the awards in 1991 the horticulture industry has undergone monumental change and has emerged today as a high quality industry worth in excess of €402million.

“Irish consumers demand quality fresh produce and are becoming more aware of how important fresh fruit and vegetables are in a healthy balanced diet. They spend almost €1billion annually on fresh fruit, vegetables and potatoes, second only to dairy produce as a food category.” Looking to the future, Leslie says that down the line he hopes to expand the business further. However, he says this is not on the cards for the immediate future.

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