When people told Naveen Patwal that growing mushrooms indoors had a failure rate of nearly 90%, he did not give up. Instead, the warning pushed him to learn more about the fungi. Years later, that decision turned into a growing business.
In 2022, Naveen joined hands with three friends, Amit Kumar Sharma, Poonam Sharma and Sunny Gupta, to start Planet Mushroom in Uttarakhand. The group included two engineers, an IIT Kharagpur graduate and an IIM graduate. They had worked in the US but chose to leave their jobs and return to India to build their own business.
Planet Mushroom now grows and sells a wide range of mushrooms, including shiitake, king oyster, cordyceps, morels, portobello, cremini, oyster, milky mushroom and lion’s mane. The company focuses on mushrooms that are not usually found in regular local markets.
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As per The Indian Express, Naveen Patwal’s focus behind the business was simple, “to keep all of us friends together.”
In 2006, Naveen and his friend Amit were looking for a business idea in Dehradun. During their search, they visited a factory where they learned that indoor mushroom farming was considered very risky. Instead of walking away, the two friends decided to take it as a challenge.
They used their savings to buy one acre of land in Roorkee. They also applied for a bank loan of Rs 1.35 Crore to start the business. Their early years were difficult. They struggled to create the right conditions for growing mushrooms inside the farm. Even small changes in the surroundings can affect the crop. They faced several failed batches before finally getting their production under control in 2011.
Things turned upside down for Naveen Patwal, Amit Kumar Sharma, Poonam Sharma and Sunny during COVID-19, when they lost nearly 100 tonnes of mushrooms, worth Rs 1.5 Crore. This made them rethink how they were selling their products. They realised that depending only on wholesale markets was not a great idea for the future and decided to sell directly to customers. This idea led to the launch of Planet Mushroom in 2022.
Even though the company grows multiple types of mushrooms, around 90 per cent of its production is still button mushrooms, according to Naveen. He believes the demand for other varieties can grow in the future. He feels restaurants and chefs can help people discover these less common mushrooms by adding them in dishes. Naveen said he understood this after learning from a chef in Goa.
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Naveen was growing shiitake for nearly a year but never tasted them because he found their smell too strong. That changed when Chef Satish Shridhar, who runs the vegan restaurant Cantine Indienne in Goa, cooked them fresh and served them.
After trying it, Naveen started to see the mushroom differently. He compared its strong smell with fresh garlic, saying that it can add a special taste to food. This experience also helped him understand that introducing a new type of mushroom is not only about growing it. People also need to learn how to cook it and get used to its taste.
