Erlin's mushroom crispies

This article was written by Alexander Chou and published by the Taiwan Journal on March 3, 2006. It features Erlin Township in central Taiwan's Changhua County, whose many local specialities include the unique mushroom chips. These chips are made of dried whole oyster mushrooms and exported as health food snacks to Germany.

It all began with a training project sponsored by the Council of Agriculture and organized by the Changhua County Government and Erlin's farmers' association. Via this project, farmers have learned to produce and market value-added agricultural products.

Erlin's farmers do not use any pesticide or chemical fertilizer on their mushrooms, so that they can sell their mushroom chips as pollution-free, organic snacks. These mushroom chips are rich in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C and calcium, and are cholesterol-free. There has been such great demand from the international market in recent years that Erlin is now building more mushroom-growing facilities. In addition to being made into chips, these mushrooms are also sold fresh to every corner of Taiwan.

Statistics show that in Erlin, the maximum daily production capacity of oyster mushrooms is 40 metric tons. On average, daily production is about 10 metric tons, enough to bring in revenues of US$12.5 million to Erlin's farmers every year.