FungiHub: the modular and replicable mushroom farm model for Switzerland
In Switzerland, gourmet mushrooms are heavily imported and arrive degraded after days of transit. Independent mushroom farms are prohibitively costly, and direct distribution is unviable. Our answer: the satellite model. A central hub supplies substrates, know-how and proven infrastructure setup; each satellite produces and sells locally.
Our goal: to democratize gourmet mushroom production across Switzerland, by providing a replicable model.
What issue does your project address, and why do you want to tackle it?
Small Swiss gourmet mushroom farms face a structural trap: direct sales can't scale beyond local markets, and distributors work almost exclusively with imports from Poland, Italy or China. To compete on price, small producers must reduce margins, making local production often barely viable. Our hub system allows infrastructure optimization for local presence and distribution, increasing productivity, reducing costs, and allowing small players to enter the market with a lower barrier to entry.
What is your project about and how does it help nurture tomorrow's Switzerland?
Our FungiHub model sets the base for a modular production system for maximum yield with minimal footprint: vertical m³ cultivation rather than m², zero pesticides or insecticides, deployable in any existing space, urban as well. Each unit can then operate with minimal waste in a closed production cycle. Replicable region by region, season-independent, the model builds a Swiss producer food network — healthy, local, and free from import dependency.
How do you measure your project's success?
- Establishment of a hub guidebook: how to build & operate a profitable and environmentally sustainable mushroom farm delivering ultra fresh product in Switzerland.
- In practice: production from 0 to 100 kg weekly by end of year 1, from 100 to 400 kg by end of year 2.
- Integration of new generation intelligent sensors to reduce mushroom loss.
- First candidate identified to roll out our FungiHub first satellite.
Who are the people behind the project and what is your secret to a great collaboration?
A complementary team: startup management, food & beverage expertise, and a hospitality sales network (EHL). Academic partner HEIA-FR develops our AI sensor (Project: FungiCycle AI); Riz du Vully and Grangeneuve for circular raw material supply and activities development. As members of the Cluster Food & Nutrition, we operate within an active innovation network, and continue to contribute and build it.
