The Perm region unexpectedly became the largest exporter of… fly agarics. According to Rosselkhoznadzor, last year certificates were issued for the shipment of 565 kilograms of this dried mushroom to Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines and even the United States. Who needed them and how did the fly agaric become the new gold mine of the Urals? KP special correspondent went to Perm to get more details.
“100 THOUSAND PER KILO”
“…Why should we hide? We work openly, now you will see everything for yourself,” Perm businessman Alexander Zakirov takes me to the base, while talking about the features of his difficult business and admits with satisfaction: “140 kilograms of fly agarics in America? Yes, I sold it last year! In general, I was the first to officially introduce fly agarics abroad.”
We arrive on the outskirts of Perm and Alexander immediately goes to check the next batch of fly agaric tops that just came out of the dehydrator. And smile again: the drying was uniform, the humidity did not exceed 11%, the smell was also normal. New bags are sent to the warehouse, where about 150 kilos of this mushroom are already stored.
“It’s not enough, of course,” he sighs. – This year there was a kind of crop loss of fly agarics, last year we dried 2.5 tons (it’s just us, there are several other companies that do this in Perm), this year there will be at most half a ton.
– Half a ton of dry? How long was he “alive”?
– With less than 8 tons, it loses about 15 times its weight. Why am I selling it? Commercial secret. I sell wholesale, through online stores, about 3 kg, others 5. So they will take care of the retail trade: crushing, packaging, packaging, designing each unit. As a result, a kilogram of “fly” will reach the final consumer for about 100 thousand.
He takes turns opening the doors of the healthy dehydrating cabinets, where chanterelles and egg whites are currently being dried.
– How wonderful! Completely ours, made in Perm, with remote control and climate control – we set a certain humidity and this allows us not to overcook the mushroom, which dries in just 12 hours. They paid 750 thousand for each one! Yes, we are waiting, there we are.
DEMAND GENERATED BY THE PANDEMIC
After a brief call, two women arrive at the yard in a car with a trailer. The latter is loaded with large plastic buckets, full of salted milk mushrooms: there is already an order from a large manufacturer, who collects them, packages them in pretty jars with attractive labels, after cutting them and adding garlic, pepper, leaves of horseradish and send them to retail chains. The products are weighed and sorted: large ones in one barrel, small ones (this is the highest grade) in another. The average purchase price is 150 rubles per kilo. For everything, women receive about 50 thousand rubles in their hands and leave satisfied.
Actually, at the moment, Alexander and his comrades did mainly this: buying traditional mushrooms from the population for primary processing and subsequent sale to large customers. Until, during the 2020 pandemic, friends discovered that a huge demand for fly agarics suddenly appeared out of nowhere; It seems that, in search of a panacea for a new infection, people rushed to turn to traditional medicine. And Alexander Zakirov’s business was instantly rebuilt.
Colleagues make cautious predictions: they say that people’s love for fly agarics will repeat the high demand for ginger and end the pandemic. However, everything turned out exactly the opposite: today the Internet is replete with advertisements about the sale of both fly agaric capsules and all kinds of products based on it: infusions, extracts, ointments, creams and some kind of “microdoses” .
“Here it is,” Oleg Tretyakov, Alexander Zakirov’s business partner, places bright jars with a cheerful fly agaric on the table label. Each of them contains 60 capsules with a small amount (usually up to 0.5 grams) of ground mushrooms. This is a “microdose.” The bottles ordered by Oleg are manufactured completely legally in one of the pharmaceutical plants; the consumer gets them for at least 2,800 rubles each.
However… But who pays that amount of money for a poisonous mushroom and why? Actually…
INCREASE IN RURAL INCOME
The worst suspicions are born in my head, from my ideas about the fly agaric. But Alexander and Oleg express their version of how microdosing works. They give the example of vitamins: one or two a day will help the body, but a hundred doses can put it in intensive care.
And they draw the conclusion that was reached last year in a serious institution: “the substances included… in the List of potent and toxic substances… have not been identified.” But at the same time, here fly agarics are classified into a group whose toxins, by the nature of the poisoning they cause, have a neurotropic effect (loss of consciousness, hallucinations, etc.).
Almost the same is said on numerous websites offering fly agarics in capsules: sellers claim that this “micro” consumption supposedly relieves fatigue and fatigue, helps eliminate irritability and increases performance. However, doctors and mycologists have a radically different opinion on this matter: there are no pharmacological studies, and therefore no medicinal or other positive properties of fly agaric have been proven (see “Expert comments”).
– …But this is not only a business, but also a significant increase in the income of the villagers! – Roman enters the conversation, also buying mushrooms from the population.
– Exactly! – Alexander Zakirov confirms and enters his notes. – Here is a family to whom I paid almost 2 million this season, they earned these 400 thousand, here is a schoolboy who passed 150 thousand, here is a policeman who, during a break between services, earned more than his annual salary. And this is just “fly” money!
– By the way, tomorrow I’ll buy some mushroom food. Far. Are you with me? – Roman makes an offer that was a sin to refuse.
“ONE OR TWO HOUR IN THE FOREST – 3-4 THOUSAND IN YOUR POCKET”
The walk to Roman’s procurement office takes several hours. On the outskirts of the town of Nyrob, they adapted a semi-active sawmill as a collection point for wild plants, where they installed the well-known dryer. It’s almost the end of the season, but people still bring mushrooms and berries and immediately exchange them for banknotes.
– I walked in the forest for an hour or two: 3-4 thousand in my pocket. Is this bad? – exclaims the woman counting the money.
At this moment I am studying a magazine with records of wild plants: “white, 1st grade – 8.9 kg, 1355 rubles”, “white, 2nd grade, 20 kg, 2170 rubles”, “white, 38.5 kg, 4240 rubles.”
A week earlier, up to fifty people visited the “procurement office” per day, for a kilo of top-quality white mushrooms (unopened cap up to 5 cm) they gave up to 150 rubles, but, despite the fact that in the end, the mushroom will be sold several times more expensive, this is convenient for people:
“Of course, you can take it to the Perm market (here you can sell it to someone, everyone has mushrooms),” people think. – But let’s do the math: round trip: 800 km, 3.5 thousand on gasoline alone! And we are too old to rush so much. Thanks to the guys for buying, as they say on television?… Yes, social business! It’s a pity that there are not enough fly agarics this year: you could earn twice as much, panther fly agarics were accepted for 700 rubles, schoolchildren earn their own money by buying bicycles with soda.
“Many people live only on this: there is no work, the sawmills stopped working, the prisons were reduced,” adds pensioner Alexander Anatolyevich. – My pension won’t help me much, my wife works as a janitor and hasn’t received a salary for six months, although it’s already funny: 1400 in the summer, 5 thousand in the winter. And then we will live on this mushroom money all winter… Without these guys coming to us from so many miles away, it will be difficult for us.
Meanwhile I ask them about Moscow’s initiatives that arise from time to time to regulate the collection of wild plants. They don’t respond immediately.
“On the one hand, it seems that order needs to be restored: some people are stunned and, in search of money, often pluck green berries with white sides,” locals complain. – As a result, there are no seeds that gave life to new bushes; There are already problems with blueberries, although a few years ago they were abundant here. On the other hand…
On the other hand, people express fear, based on many years of observations, that Moscow, in its efforts, will regulate in such a way that one cannot even go to the forest without fear of being fined.
– No, it’s better not to touch anything…
“THERE IS DEMAND ABROAD, BUT…”
We return to Perm, where Alexander Zakirov is distracted by the Internet to organize the shipment of several batches of fly agaric at once. It speaks of rich export prospects and a queue of foreign customers: Belgium, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, etc.
– We are talking about contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars!
But something is definitely not right here. I look at the data provided by the Rosselkhoznadzor department for the Kirov, Udmurtia and Perm regions (to send plant products abroad, you must first obtain a certificate from this department confirming the absence of pests and diseases). So, if in 2022 applications were submitted to send 80 kg, in 2023, already for 565 kg, this year, only 7 kilos. I quickly lost interest…
“I’m not lying, the demand for fly agaric abroad is really huge,” says the businessman. – I recently spoke with a German client: now he will accept 2 tons of fly agaric, he is willing to help with logistics, but…
– Sanctions?
– Of course, they did some damage, but not that much. You can avoid them, this is not a problem. It is much more difficult to bypass our officials: they do not know what type of product it is, which greatly slows down exports. There’s a lot of confusion there!
“NEITHER FISH, NOR MEAT…”
-…Tell me, is this a mushroom or is it not a mushroom? – He puts several caps of dried fly agaric in front of me.
– Well, a mushroom… – I don’t understand it at all.
“That’s why we, when we registered the shipment for export last year, indicated this: code 0712390000 – “other dried mushrooms, whole, cut into pieces, sliced, crushed or powdered, but not subjected to further processing.” This was also confirmed in our Export Support Center, for which I immediately received a fine of 50 thousand rubles – they say that they deceived me, they deliberately indicated the code incorrectly, I need to classify it differently: 1211908608 – “other plants and their parts, used mainly in perfumery, pharmacy or insecticides, fungicidal or similar purposes “
– Well, I would indicate other numbers…
– If I indicate it, I will have to attach evidence that it is used in pharmacy and is included in the corresponding list of medicinal plants. And to get it in there, proper research needs to be done at an authorized research institute; all this is unrealistic… They wanted to officially lease the forest in order to organize the collection of fly agaric there. But I repeat: since it is neither a “food forest resource” nor a “medicinal plant”, a collection quota cannot be determined, which is why they denied us. Thus, the fly agaric does not seem to exist at all for the State, neither the fish nor the birds. But it’s okay, we’ll get through this somehow. There is a great demand for it. Yes, people in the villages must be given the opportunity to earn extra money.
DOCTOR’S OPINION
“The claim about its benefits is not scientific”
Natalya KORYAGINA, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Polyclinic Therapy of the Perm State Medical University, Chief Independent Therapist of the Ministry of Health of the Perm Territory:
– Today, traditional medicine is increasingly finding new life. The sudden popularity of the poisonous mushroom was due to a new phenomenon in Russia – microdosing of fly agaric. It involves the consumption of mushrooms in ultra-small doses in dried form or in capsules. Some sellers promise that microdoses of fly agaric will supposedly help cure hundreds of diseases.
With prolonged use, the toxic substance of the mushroom accumulates in the human body and can negatively affect the functioning of the heart and cause respiratory problems, in addition to affecting reproductive function and genetics. Fly agaric, in addition, is also something very dangerous for the brain. Depression of consciousness to the level of coma or death cannot be ruled out. The concept of microdosing is highly controversial. Fly agarics contain poisons and even small doses can be fatal.
It is worth adding that today there is not a single scientific evidence that microdosing can even partially increase productivity or give strength. As for fly agarics, their effect in microdoses has not been studied at all. Therefore, the claim about its benefits is not scientific. Rospotrebnadzor still classifies fly agarics in the list of the most dangerous mushrooms.
MYCOLOGIST’S COMMENT
“The fungus is far from harmless”
Lidiya PEREVEDENTSEVA, mycologist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, professor:
– Fly agaric is not really in the list of medicines, but at the same time it is used in folk medicine, where it is still mainly used as an external preparation in the form of infusions and creams, as an anesthetic for skin and joint diseases . diseases. Formerly the Swedes used them before battle. It is known that shamans, with the help of this mushroom, entered a state of fly agaric intoxication and then told their tribemates all sorts of nonsense, passing them off as revelations from spirits.
However, let us not forget that it is a poisonous mushroom that affects the central nervous system. At the same time, no medical tests have been carried out (at least, I don’t know), so the common phrase that “before using it it is necessary to consult a specialist doctor” is not appropriate here – there are no such specialists. All this has not been studied; fly agaric is far from a harmless mushroom, so you should not experiment with it.
