FUNGTOPIA Wild Mushrooms Development of value chains for wild mushrooms with rural communities

Rural communities in Mexico has a vast cultural tradition around mushrooms. During the rainy season, collectors pick wild mushrooms from the forest and use them for self consumption or trading. The country comprises more than 300 edible especies with potential to be included in our diet. Nevertheless their economic potential is untapped as rural communities do not have the knowledge to make a profitable business out of these resources and also the lack of accesible markets where they can sell their mushrooms at fare prices. These challenges made us to design a circular economy, focused on collecting, processing, and selling wild edible mushroom species of high culinary value. Our design strategy is to involve and train communities, optimizing the collecting process and closing the gap by making their mushrooms accesible to fare trade markets. This way, communities can preserve the forest as source of food and work, while consumers benefit from highly nutritive mushrooms.