By Paul Marks, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
Apr. 1–Citing the soaring cost of energy, the owner of Franklin Mushroom Farm announced Friday that the company will move production from New England’s largest mushroom grower out of state, laying off about 380 workers.
The decision to contract with a grower in eastern Pennsylvania will end almost 30 years of large-scale mushroom production at the complex along Route 32 in rural Franklin, a town of fewer than 2,000.
Company President Wilhelm Meya said the decision was painful but necessary, brought on by the high cost of oil burned to heat the growing rooms and the 17.5 percent jump in electricity costs that took effect Jan. 1.
Operations in Connecticut will be phased out during the next three months and transferred to Giorgio Fresh Farms, a large grower near Reading, Pa. Meya said production of the Franklin Farms line of prepared food products, including marinated mushrooms and portabella “Veggiburgers,” will continue at the Franklin plant.
He said only “a small group” of workers will remain employed there, and would not estimate how many.
“We did everything in our power to prevent this,” Meya said. “But given our escalating costs for energy, raw materials, transportation and fuel and the competitiveness of the marketplace in Connecticut, we didn’t have a choice.”
Robert Pellegrino, marketing director for the state Department of Agriculture, said Franklin Farms has been the largest agricultural employer in Connecticut for many years.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “It’s not only the jobs, it’s what the people working there spend in the state of Connecticut. They will be missed.”
Franklin Farms has a retail outlet store near the entrance to its 300-acre property, and Pellegrino said that has been a popular destination for area chefs. Meya said he hopes to keep the outlet open, but is not sure what will be stocked.
Bob Booth, owner of the Golden Lamb Buttery in Brooklyn, said that to get the freshest mushrooms he would have one of his employees place an order a day in advance and pick it up on her way to work. He said word of the relocation “is a disappointment, and I couldn’t be more surprised.”
Meya said the company sold about 26 million pounds of mushrooms last year, and had sales approaching $42 million. But during the past two years, annual energy costs — electricity, oil and diesel fuel for about 18 trucks — had doubled, to approximately $4 million.
“Our energy bill in December was $470,000,” Meya said.
Mushroom growing is energy-intensive, he explained. Straw used in forming the growing medium must be pasteurized at high temperatures to kill mold, then mixed with peat moss. The air in the growing chambers must be exchanged with outside air eight times an hour while being kept at about 65 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
After harvesting, the perishable crop must be refrigerated and shipped quickly to market. The farm has about 400,000 square feet of growing rooms, Meya said.
“Pennsylvania has a much lower cost structure than we have, from raw materials to energy,” Meya said.
Mushrooms grown by Giorgio Fresh will be sold under the Franklin Farms label, he said.
Workers, many of whom are foreign laborers from Mexico, will be laid off after 60 to 90 days, the company said. Meya said the average worker was earning $11 an hour.
Franklin Farms’ workforce had fallen from about 600 three years ago largely because of a shift in consumers’ tastes, Meya said. Over the years, the company, founded in 1978 by Ralston Purina Co., had primarily produced white mushrooms. In recent years, though, the growing demand for “brown” mushrooms, such as portabellas and criminis, boosted those varieties from about 10 percent of production to 35 percent. Meya said brown mushrooms are larger, so fewer workers were needed to hand-pick the crop.
Meya, who moved from his native Austria in 1975 to run the mushroom farm for Ralston Purina, purchased the operation with help from investors in 1983.
Franklin First Selectman Richard Matters said he heard the bad news from the town fire chief.
“It’s sad that they’re leaving, but I understand that it’s just business,” he said.
Matters said Franklin Mushroom Farms is the town’s largest employer, representing about 7 percent of total tax collections, and those payments to the town will likely drop as manufacturing equipment moves to Pennsylvania.
“With a $5 million budget, 7 percent is substantial,” he said.
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