Gourmet mushrooms offering a good return on investment

Business people and entrepreneurs in Africa have the opportunity to tap into the fast growing market for gourmet mushrooms by investing in a mushroom growing room.

Coldex has supplied and installed a variety of rooms throughout Southern Africa over the past 15 years.

Coldex has supplied and installed a variety of mushroom growing rooms throughout Southern Africa over the past 15 years.

A South African refrigeration systems company with vast experience across the continent, manufactures state-of-the-art mushroom growing rooms.

Business opportunity

“Gourmet mushrooms are very good cash crops and investors can earn a quick return on their investment. The time from when the starter culture goes into the room to the time that it can be reaped, is well within six weeks,” says Marcus Jooste, director of Coldex.

Coldex’s growing rooms allow for full control over temperature, humidity, air quality and light conditions. The product is modular and can be used individually or in a series. Each growing room is tailored to the individual mushroom grower’s requirements. “You can recreate all sorts of environments for different types of mushrooms,” explains Jooste.

“It is a ready-made system, we have researched it and paid our school fees in terms of how the system is put together,” he adds.

The company’s growing rooms are currently being used throughout Africa. In South Africa, Coldex has supplied growing rooms to the South African Gourmet Mushroom Academy (SAGMA), Logex and Fungi Foods, to name a few. Growing rooms have also been built for clients in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Training is available for those new to the industry. “We work with the SAGMA that runs courses, and anyone that wants to learn how to grow these mushrooms can attend the courses. We will then provide the system afterwards,” says Jooste.

In addition to mushrooms, the growing rooms can also be used for a variety of other products such as bean sprouts and tissue culture.


Contact details

For more information about this opportunity, contact Willie Maritz at:

Email: [email protected]


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