More than just mushrooms

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO, NY — The maitake mushroom is a good deal more than an epicurean delight; it may be a lifesaver.

The mushroom has been recognized for its medical value in Japan for 1,000 years. The name translates to dancing, which relates to the joy of finding the rare mushroom in the wild, according to Michael Sullivan, president of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development.

Sullivan, who is guiding the Yukiguni Maitake Manufacturing Corporation of America through the planning approval process, said the mushroom has been the subject of testing at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for the past two years. Federally funded testing involves the use of the mushroom product in the treatment of breast cancer.

Yukiguni holds a five-year-old patent on a secret growth process and is the only company that can grow the unusual mushroom at will, Sullivan said. The company plans a line of nutri-cuticals, perhaps eventually pharmaceuticals, based on the mushrooms derivatives. Yukiguni wants to both produce and package its products in Sullivan County, he said.

Along those lines, the Yukiguni mushroom plant proposed in Mamakating will be more than agri-business Sullivan wants to get the plant site zoned for light industry. A zoning map change will be required.

“They hope to make a true science center here in the United States,” he said.

The company plans a $70 million investment, employing 210 to 250 people with a 936,000 square-foot building that will be developed over 3 or 4 phases. “It will probably be the largest non-hotel, in the county,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said that with local approvals, the plant would begin construction in October and be completed in nine months.

Last week, Sullivan told the Sullivan County Legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee that spin-offs are already developing. A local recycler and waste hauler, who Sullivan did not want to name, is considering processing of the mushroom company’s growth medium, and a new locally based air-freight company, Catskill Air Express, has begun operations and expects to provide both air and ground delivery of Yukiguni products across the eastern US.

New air express service would be “dead-heading” on its return to the county and Sullivan has identified a need for commercial floral deliveries regionally. Sullivan County Airport could become a floral supply hub.