Lack of mushroom production has cut demand for poultry litter on Delmarva

DELMARVA–The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on many industries here on Delmarva.

“There were disruptions in the food industry in food production which was well reported on early on as far as the disruption as far as restaurants closing down,” Dr. Jennifer Timmons, assistant professor in our Department of Agriculture at UMES, said.

Due to some restaurants closing down, we are told there has been a decline in mushroom sales resulting in a decline in the demand for poultry litter, which is used for mushroom growth.

Ellis Farms Inc., one of Delmarva’s trucking businesses said quite a few of the mushroom buyers in Pennsylvania cut back or shut down causing a scale difference of 45 loads of poultry litter down to 16 loads within a two week time frame.

“When we got that phone call it was like a punch in the stomach like oh my god what are we gonna do you know a little bit of panic there for a minute,” Carla Ellis, general manager at Ellis Farms Inc., said.

We’re told because of this they needed to find a solution on what they were going to do with the poultry litter.

“We then had to restructure, rethink, and figure out where we are not going to take it because either way the chickens don’t stop going out they have to go somewhere and we have to put the manure somewhere,” Ellis said.

Ellis Farms said they ended up bringing some of that manure home to their own farms to store it and they sold some of it to local businesses.

“Here soon in our area farmers are getting crops out of the fields so we’ll have farmers who want manure locally for small grain or to stock pile,” Ellis said.

And although things are really uncertain for both mushroom companies and their business they said they are trying to stay hopeful.

“We have been very fortunate that when one door closed for us another one opened, so we are very blessed to have a built up clientele that we were able to ship to,” Ellis said.

Ellis Farms Inc. said some mushroom growers will struggle to come back out of this.

She also added that right they are doing around 25 to 30 loads a week.