The market
In 2009, the world consumed 126 million coffee bags, or 7.5 million tonnes of green grains ready to be roasted. Few people realize that harvesting, treatment, roasting and coffee preparation reject approximately 99.7 % of biomass. While only 0.2% acquires value on the market, the rest - rich in caffeine - is wasted. It is estimated that 12 million tonnes of agricultural waste rots, generating millions of tonnes of methane, thus contributing to climate change. This makes coffee one of the most waxed consumer products.
The global mushroom market - according to Professor Shuting Chang, the main scientist specializing in Hong Kong mushrooms - exceeded $ 17 billion in 2008 and has never stopped growing. Mushroom demand, in particular tropical varieties that listen to names like Shiitake, Maietake, and Ganoderma have experienced two -digit growth for decades. Due to consumer preference for foods without cholesterol and saturated fatty acids, average consumption per person of 175 grams of tropical mushrooms) are expected in the United States and Europe increases to 500 grams of Here a decade. It is a good thing for an additional turnover of $ 2.3 billion. If the West ate as many mushrooms as Hong Kong (17 kg per year), we expect an amazing figure of $ 120 billion. Tropical mushrooms would exceed coffee as a global basic product in the space of a generation. Americans would considerably improve their diet.
Innovation
The cultivation of fungi requires bacterial control at a high energy cost. However, either by fermentation on the farm, to peel the beans, or by the exposure of ground beans with hot water when brewing a cup, bacteria are reduced to a minimum allowing fungi to digest the fibers. Thus, cultivating mushrooms on coffee is 80 percent more energy efficient than an autonomous process of preparing substrates with high energy intensity, which brings together the free energy necessary for the preparation of coffee.
Quality tropical mushrooms are cultivated on hardwoods such as oak. The hardwoods are harvested, crushed and transformed into artificial balls. It is up to 9 months to obtain a fruit shiitake or a ganodermite. The branches, the balls, the pulp and the version are by-products of the coffee, also a hardwood enriched in caffeine. While cows or pigs are stressed by caffeine, this biochemical substance stimulates mycelium to the point that mushrooms are already coming out 3 months after sowing. This generates a better cash flow and offers a competitive alternative to traditional techniques.
The third innovation is that the remains of mushroom harvesting are enriched with essential amino acids, including lysine, a very popular enzyme traditionally resulting from the sugar beet. Thus, an worthless by-product is transformed into a quality food for livestock on the farm or for pets at home. Professor Ivanka Milenkovic (University of Belgrade, Serbia, published by Elsevier Science) provided scientific proof which underlies the financial logic of cascading nutrients and energy of agricultural waste to mushrooms, then food for animals.
The first cash flow
Carmenza Jaramillo, the Latin entrepreneur and Ivanka Milenkovic have demonstrated this business model by creating their own commercial mushrooms. The strategy of taking coffee waste and converting methane producing biomass into fungi generating income has proven to be a viable model. After more than a decade, tropical mushrooms have created new Colombia markets in Serbia. It is not surprising that in 2009, more than 100 companies have imitated this business model in the Colombian region of Café El Huila. Anyone who has access to a biomass rich in caffeine or leafy fibers, or both, now has the possibility of starting mushrooms in a competitive way. This generates jobs, ensures food security and creates income while eliminating the need to increase the number of hardwood trees and slaughters due to the growing demand for vegetarians and gourmets.
The second possibility of generating a first cash flow is the creation of a company by which cafes and restaurants pay today to eliminate coffee waste could pay symbolic costs to entrepreneurs who transform this waste into delicious mushrooms for sell to local restaurants. The real opportunity is the design of an economic model based on "waste branding". Indeed, the “waste” brand has always been negative, and no company wishes to associate its name with a specific flow of waste which causes harm or which is perceived as a nuisance. It's different now.
The opportunity
Waste is not wasted. Waste generates quality food at a lower cost, eliminating transport, offering fresh products, while reducing the load on the landfill site. Cafes and restaurants could be delighted to see their image extended to the quality of mushrooms cultivated on their waste while generating jobs. If fair trade and organic cafes like Max Havelaar were the basic material, imagine the added value that could be generated for all partners on farms or in cafes. The entrepreneur benefits from a low barrier at the entrance since restaurants and cafes of city centers pay to get rid of raw materials and pay to put these delights on their menu as the Netherlands does thanks to the 'Jan-Willem Bosman Jansen initiative of the young Gro company.
The Californian coffee wholesaler Equator, led by Helen Russell, goes up a gear. Helen and his team created a special mixture of beans called Chidoʼ Blend, named Chido Govero, the young Zimbabwean orphan who forms women around coffee farms to produce mushrooms from coffee waste, ensuring food security and jobs. This reduces abuse and helps contain the spread of AIDS. Chido uses funds to train food security orphans and when they have their food, abuses are not tolerated. The corporate model is designed to contribute to the personal and professional development of the left-handed in Africa.
At the same time, Ecuadorian customers like Peetʼ Coffee offers its waste in San Francisco Bay in Btr Ventures, the start-up created by Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez, two graduates of the Berkeley University Haas School of Business. Nikhil and Alex were the first in the United States to put a brand on mushrooms cultivated with coffee waste. It is not a surprise that they were selected by Newsweek as one of the 25 entrepreneurs under 25 of 2009. The following year, they became vice-champions of the BBC World Challenge. Helen Russell now generates more business for herself, more money for Chido, and facilitates growth for Nikhil and Alex while coffee waste gets a brand that commands an additional source of income.
This new business model proliferates from Amsterdam, Paris, Seoul, Mexico City, Sydney and Berlin with fifteen initiatives in city centers around the world in 2012. Agricultural projects have spread from Latin America to Africa and Asia, and Chido Govero is committed to making a difference. Now, if it works with coffee, we can extend to other agricultural waste such as tea in Kenya and India, apple orchards in South Africa or Chile where companies are fighting to be competitive on this globalized market By focusing on cost reduction and labor productivity. The scanning and screening of the Blue Economy team identified in South Africa no less than eight additional cash flows, while having the possibility of double the number of jobs. All these projects and initiatives have one thing in common: the need for entrepreneurs to take up the challenge of using and enhancing what is available locally.
