A professor at the College of Agriculture and Forestry at Mosul University, Ali Kareem, recalled that there had been an attempt to grow mushrooms in Ninawa before, back in the 1970s. “But if production has already started, then that is sufficient proof of this [Sallal's] project’s success already,” he noted.
Despite Sallal’s fungal success so far though, local authorities still seem to have some reservations about the mushroom project.
The head of the local council’s committee on agriculture and water, Nawaf Turki al-Faisal, told NIQASH that he was concerned about whether the end product would be fit for human consumption and that he would need to check with health and environmental authorities. Then again, this procedure was supposed to have been undertaken before Ninawa’s investment commission licensed the project.
Meanwhile back at the mushroom project, Sallal talked about how watching mushrooms grow made him happy. Although mushrooms are not that common in Iraq, the people of Mosul like to eat well and Sallal’s aim is to encourage more of them to try his mushrooms. Ninawa has a population of around three million and Sallal would like mushrooms to become a steady culinary favourite here.
Sallal gifts some of his mushrooms to his friends because at the moment, the project is still in the experimental stage and not that many are being produced but every week small amounts of his white mushrooms also arrive at the Barakat al-Rahman supermarket in the Jadida neighbourhood of Mosul. One kilogram sells for IQD6,000 (around US$5), the store owner reported.
But, as the shop owner quickly pointed out, “some customers now wait for [Sallal’s] mushrooms to arrive because they consider them better quality than the imported mushrooms.”
(Source: Niqash)
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