Economic Botany, 60(3), 2006, pp. 284–290.© 2006, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A.

There has always been an extensive and reg-ular trade in wild edible fungi (WEF) but, untilthe last 15–20 years, little has been knownabout collectors and traders (Boa 2004). Asmall number of species are traded on a globalscale, exported mostly from developing coun-tries in tropical regions and destined for Eu-rope, Japan, and North America. This trade hasexpanded considerably as countries such asChina have adopted more liberal trade policesand as previously isolated countries in EasternEurope have also grasped new possibilities formeeting a growing demand for Cantharellusspp. (chanterelles), Boletus spp. (porcini), andother species.

The export of Tricholoma magnivelare(Peck) Redhead from the Pacific Northwest re-gion of North America to Japan began in thelate 1980s and continues until this day. Thisvaluable trade brought about a huge change inwider perceptions about the importance of WEF

trade, mainly because the growth of the indus-try in places such as Oregon, Washington, andBritish Columbia has been well studied anddocumented. This was the first real opportunityto learn about the wider social, economic, andenvironmental issues relating to trade in WEF.Pilz and Molina (2002) provide a useful sum-mary of key points and findings following asustained period of research.

In Europe there are surprisingly few accountsof the trade in WEF, a notable exception beinga study by Dyke and Newton in Scotland(1999). This is true despite growing concernabout the impact of collecting on the sustain-able production of WEF species and other fun-damental questions involving land ownership.There are concerns about declines in productionof larger fungi generally, and some useful infor-mation on WEF is provided in Perini (1998),though seen from a conservation perspective asexpressed by mycologists. A general tendencyto restrict collections, based on a precautionaryprinciple (Arora 1991), pays little or no atten-tion to the effects this might have on commer-cial harvests.

The Marketing of Lactarius deliciosus in Northern Spain1

Miriam de Román and Eric Boa

De Román, Miriam, and Eric Boa (CABI Bioscience, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW209TY, UK; tel:+44(0)1491829080; fax: +44(0)1491829100; e-mail: m.deroman@cabi.org;miriamderoman@hotmail.com). The Marketing of Lactarius deliciosus in NorthernSpain. Economic Botany 60(3):284–290, 2006. We report the harvesting of an average of4,000 kg of saffron milk caps (Lactarius deliciosus Fr.) per day during four to six weeks be-tween mid-October and mid-November in a village of 200 inhabitants in northern Spain.Nearly every inhabitant picks saffron milk caps, for which they receive an average of 2 b /kg.A family of four could make a profit of 5,600–8,400 b in a season (average annual income perfamily in the area is 18,727 b). Pickers sell the harvested mushrooms either to a local mid-dleman or directly to the buyer, who then takes the produce to the final point of sale, usuallyin Catalonia, where the demand for saffron milk caps is increasing yearly. This trade has oc-curred for 30 years, and began when saffron milk caps started to appear in the area after pinetrees were introduced to replace the native oaks. This study provides evidence that the collec-tion and marketing of wild edible fungi is a profitable task on a local and national scale.

Key Words: Wild edible fungi (WEF), Lactarius deliciosus, saffron milk caps, marketing,trade, market chain, non-timber forest products (NTFP), Pinus nigra, Pinus sylvestris, pineforests, Spain.

1 Received 9 February 2005; accepted 19 April2006.

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Market demand for wild mushrooms andother non-timber forest products (NTFP) has in-creased to the extent that their commercial valuemay surpass the value of timber-based trade(Arnolds 1995). This change in importance hasalso come about because of a decline inforestry-based industries, which in some coun-tries has been precipitated by logging bans, forexample in North America (Tedder, Mitchell,and Farran 2000).

As the demand increases and rural communi-ties struggle to find new sources of income,there is a growing need for better informationon existing trade so that informed decisions canbe made that both protect natural resources andallow their sustainable harvest. Forest planningand management has paid little or no attentionto the harvesting of wild edible fungi, as studiesin Spain have explained (Oria de Rueda 1991).

More recently, a series of studies in Spainhave begun to reveal a surprisingly large num-ber of WEF enterprises. Cèpes or porcini (Bole-tus spp.), chanterelles (Cantharellus cibariusFr.), saffron milk caps (Lactarius deliciosusFr.), and truffles (Tuber melanosporum Vitt.)are the main commercial WEF species tradednationally and exported (De Román and Boa2004). A little-known study by Martínez deAzagra, Oria de Rueda, and Martínez (1997)provides much useful background detail onmany WEF species while Samils et al. (2003)look in particular at truffles and their economicdevelopment. A market research study in Cat-alonia gives evidence that WEF play a majorrole in the rural economy of the country(Cervera 1997).

An unusual opportunity arose for us to studythe trade in Lactarius deliciosus. We analyzethe extent to which the collection and market-ing of Lactarius deliciosus has affected a ruralcommunity in northern Spain. We describe forthe first time the amounts of WEF collected, therevenue generated, and its general importanceto those involved in the supply chain, and weprovide evidence that the collection and mar-keting of WEF is a profitable task on a localand national scale.

The Study SiteThe study was carried out in Buenavista de

Valdavia, a village in the province of Palencia(Castille-Leon, northern Spain, Fig. 1) with 200inhabitants. The trade of saffron milk cap

started in this village around 1970, after an ex-tensive reforestation plan undertaken in the1940s and the 1950s that replaced the originalQuercus pyrenaica Willd. forests with the moreproductive (in terms of timber) Pinus nigraArnold and Pinus sylvestris L. (Martínez deAzagra and Oria de Rueda 2001). Locals soonrealized that there was a new mushroom grow-ing in their forests that was collected by peoplecoming from other places, mainly Catalonia.They started to collect it themselves becausethey had heard it was a good way of makingmoney, but not for their own consumption,since there was no tradition of eating this un-known mushroom.

The origin of this trade lies in the strong de-mand for saffron milk caps, known in Spanishas niscalos, from Catalonia. Catalonians havelong esteemed wild edible fungi, eagerly seek-ing them for personal consumption and display-ing a willingness to pay high prices in markets(Cervera 1997; Wasson and Wasson 1957). Pa-lencia has a less obvious tradition, though localpeople have also collected and consumed wildedible fungi for many years, welcoming theavailability of wild food as winter approaches.The species traditionally collected for own con-sumption in Palencia are Calocybe gambosa(Fr.) Singer, Hygrophorus russula (Fr.) Kauff-man, Marasmius oreades (Bolton) Fr., andPleurotus eryngii (DC.) Gillet (Martínez deAzagra, Oria de Rueda, and Martínez 1997).These local mushrooms do not seem to bethreatened at all by the introduction of the newspecies through reforestation, because they allgrow in other habitats rather than the pine plan-tations in which the saffron milk caps thrive.Locals still do not regard L. deliciosus as amushroom worth eating, and they prefer the tra-ditional species for their personal consumption.

L. deliciosus is not the only species involvedin this well-established trade. Two other relatedspecies are also harvested: L. sanguifluus Fr.and L. semisanguifluus R. Heim & Leclair. Nodistinction is made between the fruit bodies ofthese two taxa and those of the main species.All three species are considered here under thecommon name of saffron milk caps.

The trading season usually lasts for four tosix weeks, from mid-October to mid-November,although it varies depending on weather condi-tions. Information on the amounts of saffronmilk caps collected and sold in Buenavista was

ascertained during a weekend in November2002 by interviewing all the stakeholders in-volved in the market chain: those harvesting themushrooms, those acting as intermediaries inthe sale, and those in charge of purchasing theproduct and transporting it to the wholesalepoint, usually in Catalonia. According to the lo-cals, the collecting season in 2002 was an aver-age one, so the figures shown here can be con-sidered as representative of the trade of L.deliciosus in the village.

It is important to notice that the first author(M. de Román) personally knew many of thelocal people interviewed. We had access to in-formation which otherwise would have beendifficult to obtain. Nevertheless, in some casesit was not possible to carry out the structuredinterviews as planned due to some pickers’ andbuyers’ distrust of any investigation. Dyke andNewton (1999) encountered the same problemin their careful analysis of the commercial tradein WEF in Scotland, but they overcame thesedifficulties by informally asking questions simi-lar to those used in the structured interviews.

We also found this a good method to obtain in-formation.

ResultsMushroom Pickers

Nearly every inhabitant (80–90% of a popula-tion of 200) in Buenavista de Valdavia collectssaffron milk caps. Women and children oftenpick mushrooms on weekdays, while men joinwhen they are done with their normal farmingactivities. These include growing cereals, pota-toes, and beetroot; some also have cattle. Somefarmers even reported abandoning their usualtasks while the mushroom season lasted becausethey found it was more profitable to pick saffronmilk caps than to take care of their crops.

Local people had been harvesting saffronmilk caps for about 12 years, although figuresranged between 30 years for the pioneer pickersand two years for newcomers. All reported anincrease in demand for L. deliciosus, with morepeople involved in picking it every year. Indeed,mushroom pickers included not only people

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Fig. 1. Map of Spain showing the division of the country in regions and the location of the study site,Buenavista de Valdavia.

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from Buenavista but also people from neighbor-ing villages up to 30 km away. Although theyknew of smaller markets close to their own vil-lages, they preferred to come to Buenavista be-cause of the better deals they got due to thegreater competition among buyers.

Picking PracticesThe harvest starts early in the morning and

lasts until the afternoon, with most pickersspending an average of six hours per day in theforest. They always go by car and drive 4–10km to reach their favorite sites. The harvestingof saffron milk caps involves a lot of walking,mostly on steep slopes, and pickers would needto come back to their cars now and then toleave their produce. Pickers jealously guardknowledge of good sites and will not revealthem even to their closest friends or relatives.

The tools used for the harvesting usuallyconsist of baskets or wooden boxes and a knifeor a sickle. The wooden boxes are the contain-ers in which the mushrooms are later sold to thebuyer, and their advantage over the baskets isthat the mushrooms need no further handlingbefore they are sold and thus remain fresher.Buckets and plastic bags are forbidden becausepeople believe they do not allow the spores ofthe collected mushrooms to fall and thus dis-perse in the forest. Pickers would be fined ifthey were caught using them by the Servicio deProtección de la Naturaleza, a branch of therural police dealing with environmental topics.

Collectors carefully cut the stalk of themushrooms at the base, never pulling them,clean them removing leaf and litter debris, andplace them upside down in the container, takingcare not to touch the gills to avoid the greencolor resulting from the oxidation of the exudedlatex. Those showing maggots and insect dam-age are not collected, and very small ones (capdiameter <1.5 cm) are usually left behind forthe next harvest trip. Pickers would wait at leasttwo days before returning to the same site inorder to allow the mushrooms to grow. Localharvesting practices appear to be uniform, non-destructive, and successfully acquired by col-lectors through experience without the need forcodes of practice or obligatory training ses-sions, as demanded in the Pacific Northwest(Pilz and Molina 1996).

When asked about the best weather condi-tions for a good mushroom season, all pickers

agreed that August storms were important, aswere abundant rains in September and October.The temperature must not drop below zero C.,and if it does, frosts should never last for morethan five to seven consecutive days. Pickers af-firmed that the best places for collecting arewhere there is pine mixed with native oak, andalso areas where bushes (e.g., Crataegus sp.,Juniperus sp.) and ericaceous plants are pres-ent.

Money Earned by Locals throughMushroom Picking

Pickers are paid an average of 2 a/kg, al-though the prices can range from 1 to 5 a/kgdepending on the quality of the mushrooms andtheir supply and demand on a given day (wewitnessed several telephone calls from a buyerto his middleman in order to tell him the pricethe pickers should be paid). At the beginning ofthe season, prices vary between 3 and 5 a/kg.The previous year’s prices were as high as 12a/kg., but that was an exception. In mid-seasonprices go down to 1 a/kg, and at the end of theperiod prices rise again but never reach the highfigures paid at the beginning. Most pickerswould go to collect saffron milk caps even ifprices were as low as 0.40 a/kg, but below thatprice they consider it would not be worth it.

Considering that the average price paid to thecollector is 2 a/kg, and having stated that eachperson collects an average of 25 kg per day, afamily of four could earn 200 a per day, or5,600–8,400 a in a four- to six-week season.The average annual income per family in thearea is 18,727 a after tax, 2,824 a less than theaverage in Spain, so it is obvious that mush-room picking is a remarkable means of obtain-ing an additional income in this less-favoredarea of the country.

Licenses for PickingMany pickers mentioned the fact that they

used to need a license to collect saffron milkcaps, but that this practice had stopped. It wasdifficult to control whether pickers had a li-cense or not, and therefore fewer and fewerpickers would purchase one. This license sys-tem had been working for four years until theyear 2001 (in 2002 only four people had boughta license, so the town council decided to givethem the money back and abolish the licensesystem), and only those registered in the official

residents list from Buenavista had the right tohave one in order to harvest saffron milk capswithin the forests belonging to the municipality.The license cost 30 a and entitled each personto collect as many mushrooms as desired. Thisbrought about frequent incidents with peoplefrom neighboring villages because, even thoughthey would have been willing to purchase a li-cense, they were not allowed to do so becausethey did not live in Buenavista. Pickers fromBuenavista would like to see the license systemre-established, because they believe it helpssustain the resources and avoids the lack of re-spect that many outsiders were said to show fortheir forests.

The MiddlemenBuyers often have a middleman in the village

who tells them when there are mushroomsavailable and provides a venue for the trade,getting a commission for the service. Locals be-lieve that the middleman is more trustworthythan the buyer, and this is why they have be-come an essential part of the mushroom trade.

In Buenavista de Valdavia there are threemiddlemen, all connected with the three bars inthe village. Two of them are the owners, whilethe third is the former owner of a bar and hasbeen involved in the marketing of saffron milkcaps for years. She continues to act as a middle-man because she has an established network ofpickers and buyers. The present owner of an-other bar reported he did not have any interestin the market, but he allows a buyer to use hisbar as a venue for the trade, even though hewould not get any commission for it.

Although we found that about half of themushroom pickers dealt directly with the buy-ers, the middlemen seemed to be essential formany of them. Many pickers affirmed that theydid not trust the buyers because they had beencheated (or at least felt so) when selling theirmushrooms directly to them. Each picker usu-ally sells his mushrooms to the same middle-man, showing that the collectors need to placetheir trust in a given person to feel comfortablewith the trade.

Each middleman deals with a single buyer,and although they agree on the price of the pro-duce with the picker depending on the quality,the buyer always fixes a price bracket depend-ing on the demand. We were not told how muchcommission the middlemen received, but it

seems to be a profitable task since they hadbeen involved in the saffron milk cap marketfor an average of ten years.

Mushroom BuyersSeven buyers were found purchasing saffron

milk caps in Buenavista the weekend the surveywas carried out, three of them with the aid of amiddleman as described above, and the otherfour without any intermediary. According to thelocals, this is the average number of buyers whousually come to Buenavista, although in 1992,when the production of L. deliciosus was ex-traordinary high, up to 22 buyers were recordedin the village during a single day.

Buyers came from different regions: Castille-Leon, Castille-La Mancha, Comunidad Valen-ciana, and Catalonia, at distances ranging from20 to 770 km from Buenavista de Valdavia.They came with their trucks when the seasonstarted and then travelled daily from Buenavistato the final sale point, which for most buyers isBarcelona (760 km from Buenavista). One ofthe buyers also reported going to Valencia (700km), and another shipped mushrooms to Palmade Mallorca.

The saffron milk cap market takes placeevery day of the week, although Friday is a qui-eter day due to the fact that on Saturday thewholesale market in Barcelona is closed. Thismeans that the buyers have to store the mush-rooms for two days before taking them to thefinal sale point, and quality would deteriorate.Many buyers do not turn up on Friday in Bue-navista.

The reasons why buyers reported coming toBuenavista to buy saffron milk caps were theabundance and the good quality, much betterthan those collected elsewhere.

A buyer from Castille-La Mancha said shetook two months of unpaid leave every year fromher job to devote herself to the marketing of saf-fron milk caps. Although she said it was strenu-ous work, she also said it was financially reward-ing. She works in this trade with five otherrelatives, and they have two trucks. They startbuying saffron milk caps in France and Andorrain September, then move to Buenavista at the endof October, and end up purchasing the last mush-rooms of the season in Portugal in November.

Another buyer works for a company that em-ploys 17 people throughout Spain, France, Por-tugal, and the Alps. He would start as early as

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the middle of August to trade saffron milk capsin the Alps, and then travel south as the seasonprogressed.

Buyers who do not have an intermediary inthe village arrive in Buenavista at around 1800and deal with the pickers until approximately2100. Those buyers who have middlemen turnup in Buenavista only in the late evening to col-lect the produce purchased by the intermediary.They are thus able to visit more villages inorder to gather a greater amount of mushrooms.Even though they have to pay the middleman acommission, they end up earning more moneythan the buyers who do not have an intermedi-ary due to the larger scale of the trade in whichthey are involved.

After the market in Buenavista is over for theday, all buyers drive their trucks to the final salepoint, a hard eight-hour overnight journey. Inmany cases, though, buyers are organized in sucha way that they meet another truck halfway. Thissecond truck is the one that reaches the final salepoint, and the first truck is thus able to return toBuenavista and get ready for the market of thefollowing day. This practice implies an increasein the number of people involved in the market-ing, which in turn leads to a considerable rise ofprices at the final stage of the market chain.

The Wholesale Market in BarcelonaThe usual destination is the wholesale market

of Mercabarna in Barcelona. It is the mainwholesale outlet for wild mushrooms not onlyin Catalonia but also in the whole country.There, the mushrooms are sold to retailers andrestaurants. According to Cervera (1997), 478metric tons of saffron milk caps worth 1.5 mil-lion a are sold on average in Mercabarna everyyear, with prices ranging between 3.6 and 7.2a/Kg. The origin of the saffron milk caps is notalways stated, but Catalonia, Castille-Leon, andAragon are recorded as the main producing re-gions. Saffron milk caps are always availablefrom September to December, and in somecases also earlier or later, but never in March orApril. Prices are highest in May and August,when only few mushrooms are available, andlowest in November (Cervera 1997).

Retailers and Restaurants in Barcelona

We visited several retailer stalls at La Bo-quería market in Barcelona in November 2002,

and found that saffron milk caps were availablein all the stalls which usually sell fruits andvegetables. They were divided into classes, andprices were 6.90–13 a/Kg for first class, 4.90–5.99 a/Kg for second class, 2.90–4.90 a/Kg forthird class, and 0.99–1.49 a/Kg for brokenpieces. We also went to several restaurants, andin all of them there was at least one dish pre-pared with saffron milk caps, which confirmsthat they are extremely popular in Barcelona.

Final RemarksAs much as four metric tons of saffron milk

cap are traded daily in Buenavista de Valdavia,though on exceptional occasions this can in-crease to eight to nine tons. The area is veryproductive, although much depends on weatherconditions and particular seasons.

Oliach et al. (2000) report one ton of L. deli-ciosus being collected and sold daily in Las-paúles, a village in the province of Huesca.Romá, Valios, and Colinas (1997) cite produc-tions of 108.16 kg/ha of L. deliciosus in Pinussylvestris forests in the central Pyrenees.Martínez de Aragon, Bonet, and Colinas (1998)and Fernández et al. (1993) say that thoseforests in which Pinus sylvestris is the domi-nant tree species seem to be the most produc-tive ones in terms of wild fungi.

The market for L. deliciosus in this smallarea in northern Spain has developed smoothlyto date. There are no obvious concerns aboutsustainability, and local regulation of the har-vest has so far managed to keep both the collec-tors and the buyers in business. Other commu-nities may well be contemplating or evenexperiencing commercialization of wild ediblefungi, as suggested by the global overview pre-sented by Boa (2004). More information aboutexisting practices is needed to help plan thenew schemes, and we would encourage othersto examine more closely the trade in commer-cially valuable species.

AcknowledgmentsWe would like to express gratitude for the

kind cooperation of everyone in Buenavista deValdavia and surrounding villages for the infor-mation provided, with special mention of Lau-reano Román, who took us to his secret mush-room sites, Elena Gutiérrez, who provided mostvaluable data about all the stakeholders in-volved in the marketing, and Carmela Calvo,

who let us observe the trade that was being heldin her bar.

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