JAPAN: Climate change blamed for poor mushroom harvest
Updated
In Japan there are fears that climate change could already be having a damaging impact on one of the nation's favourite mushrooms. This year's harvest of Matsutake mushrooms is been one of the lowest on record.
Presenter: Shane McLeod
Speakers: Biologist, Professor Fumihiko Yoshimura; Chef Hidehito Uchiyama
MCLEOD: Masayuki Takaoka knows a thing or two about mushrooms.
He's been running his wholesale stall outside tokyo's tsukiji market for 42 years.
Laid out on stands under the awning are all manner of mushrooms, from tiny enoki; clusters of shimeji and boxes filled with bronze shiitake.
But reverence is kept for the most expensive wares on sale -- small wooden boxes filled with matsutake mushrooms.
TAKAOKA: It's a pretty bad season. It's because of the weather, and there are now fewer forests where trees are being harvested. But the main reason for the poor harvest is the weather, it was too hot and it did't rain.
MCLEOD: This morning, Mr Takaoka is doing a brisk trade.
Chef Hidehito Uchiyama is in the market for some matsutake for his japanese restaurant in Tokyo's flashy Ginza district.
UCHIYAMA: I usually buy around a kilo of matsutake, he says, but the price is different day by day. I spent around 600 dollars a day on them, today it was a bit more expensive, 700 dollars a kilo. I've spent about that today.
MCLEOD: Those mushrooms will end up delicately sliced, perhaps grilled or served with rice to add a distinctive, cinnamon-like taste.
Domestically produced matsutake always command a high price. And Japan can also turn to imports to satisfy its matsutake needs.
But sanctions against north korea, and pesticide scares with imports from china, have reduced those supplies as well.
Professor Fumihiko Yoshimura is a biologist who's studied Matsutake for more than 40 years.
He says it looks like this season will be the worst since world war two.
YOSHIMURA: There are two reasons, when the matsutake are supposed to grow, there was not enough rain and the temperature was high. And unfortunately that resulted in low production, not just in limited areas, but across most of Japan.
MCLEOD: Professor Yoshimura worries that global warming may already be having an effect on Japan's favourite fungus.
YOSHIMURA: We need to review our lifestyle to reduce our CO2 output, otherwise I think there's going to be more decline in matsutake productin in the years ahead. As one other measure to deal with the problem we could try watering the forests during the season to lower the temporature of the forests as well. We're doing that as an experiment now.
MCLEOD: Back at tsukiji market, Masayuki Takaoka isn't convinced that global warming is entirely to blame.
TAKAOKA: We might be seeing some effect from it, but we have been experiencing good and bad harvests in recent years. so this year is not a particular exception.
MCLEOD: Japan will be closely watching its pine forests next year with the hope that this seasons performance has been a one-off.
