“Former Underground Parking Lot Transformed into the Largest Urban Mushroom Farm in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes”

And former underground parking lot 1000 m disused²in the heart of the Renaudie district in Saint-Martin-d’Heres has been transformed into urban mushroom farm by the solidarity enterprise of social utility, Champiloop. It would also be the largest in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The inauguration took place on Tuesday 4 April while the development work took place from October to the end of February. The whole, studies and materials included, represents an investment of 700 000 euros.

Champiloop will be able to produce around 3.5 tonnes of mushrooms per month thanks to these two mushroom farms in Eybens and Saint-Martin-d’Hères

“Since the end of February, we have started producing mushrooms on this site. As for the substrate preparation part, it will be in about a month and a half”testifies Hamid Sailanico-founder of Champiloop with Maxime Boniface who is the president. As the car park is the property of the City of Saint-Martin-d’Hères, Champiloop will pay it rent.

Champiloop: a second mushroom farm in the spring

In terms of production, this new mushroom farm joins the historic one located in Frisian cellars To Eybens. “In Saint-Martin-d’Hères we are aiming for a volume of 1.5 tonnes or even 2 tonnes per month while in Eybens, we are at 800 kg with the possibility of increasing to 1.3 tonnes per month.” That is a total of nearly 3.5 tonnes of mushrooms produced per month. “In Eybens, the cellars are humid, which is more favorable to the production of shiitakes. In the Saint-Martin-d’Hères car park, we can better manage humidity and ventilation. This means that we can produce oyster mushrooms and prepare the substrates.”

The Saint-Martin-d’Hères mushroom farm with its equipment and substrates prepared on site will also enable Champiloop to produce other varieties mushrooms in small quantities such as enokis, eryngiis, oyster mushrooms, lion manes…

Champiloop: between three and four people will be recruited within a year and a half

The opening of this second mushroom farm is accompanied by a need to recruit. “We have hired a person on a permanent contract to help us on the production part in Eybenssays Hamid Sailani. Today, we are a team of five to manage the two sites and we will continue to recruit as production progresses.” Priority will be given to habitants of the Renaudie district, priority political district of the city. “Within a year and a halfwe plan to be able recruit in between three and four people.”

For the time being Champiloop does not plan not to create a third mushroom farm. On the other hand, she is solicited by project leaders elsewhere in France, who wish to benefit from internships and training in urban mushroom production. “The objective is to solidify the economic model here and then to duplicate it in other territories using the same toolboxcomments Maxime Boniface. That is to say, forge very strong links with local public and private actors and make people want to eat mushrooms in a territory.”

Furthermore, Champiloop continues, as it has done for the past two years, to host discovery and initiation workshops both practical and theoretical, about once a month, this time for the attention of the grand public.