The South African mushroom farming industry shows promise despite a lack of training and expertise. According to the South African Mushroom Industry Outlook 2022–2026, SA ranked 22^nd in global mushroom production with 24,070 metric tons.

Mushrooms are a group of fleshy, macroscopic fungi. Usually just the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground or soil or on its food source. Mushrooms are immune systems and fight off infection

Afrique Rising Trading (ART) CEO Daniel Motshwane launched a project titled “Reindustrializing Communities through Mushroom Farming.” Mr. Motshwane says, “We’ve identified mushroom farming as a niche agribusiness, and we’ve been focusing on training and upskilling rural and urban communities to grow oyster mushrooms and processing them for new venture creation.”.

Daniel’s team has currently trained 500 people across the country, with about 85% of them being women and youth. Talitha Zondi, one of the trainees, says, “The training and experience were interesting and eye-openers.” She further states that you don’t need a huge amount of land to start mushroom farming; you can just start in your own house.

Talitha says there’s a stigma attached to mushrooms because, growing up, we were told that mushrooms are poisonous, and because of that stigma, it prohibits our communities from enjoying mushrooms. She cites that more education is needed to teach people to change their mindset towards mushrooms.

ART CEO says, “The major goal is to form a mushroom cluster in South Africa.”