Mushroom production that started in 1960's in Turkey gained economic value from the 1990's and it started improving as a commercial sector after that time. While Turkey mushroom production was 80 tons in 1973, it increased up to 45.000 tons in 2014. There is a rapid changes and improvement in cultivated mushroom production and consumption in Turkey. The object of the study is to reveal current status of mushroom production in the world and Turkey, and the problems of the mushroom sector in Turkey and the necessary precautions and ways to solve these problems. The data obtained from the inspections of the mushroom enterprises that in mushroom production regions of Turkey, and the secondary data obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and Union of Antalya Exporters (AIB) and also national and international publication’ data has been used in this study. In Turkey, Mediterranean and Marmara Regions rank first in mushroom production and consumption with the share of 61.5 and 40%, respectively. It has been determined that big enterprises producing mushroom and compost established in the Central Anatolia in this study. The number of enterprises producing mushroom by using technology increases and 15-20% of the total production are provided by the big enterprises having 2000 m2 and over mushroom production areas. Recent years, there are serious increases in the production of different mushroom species such as especially Pleurotus ostreatus. In addition, precision agriculture applications are widespread with the time. For the continuation of growth of the mushroom sector in Turkey and the solving of the sector problems, there are needs both in making the necessary changes in legislation and to be given priority researches related to mushroom production in university and public research institutions and also to support them.

The commercial production of cultivated-mushroom, which has a forty years of past in Turkey, was started after 1980s. Until the recent decade, most of the total amount of production in Turkey was performed by family members while the cultivation of the product has gained an upward trend since the beginning of 2000s, though the amount and development rate were not enough. During that time, a number of large (>2000 m2) and medium (500-2000 m2) scale mushroom production facilities were established and Turkey has gained an important place in mushroom production in the world. In this study, we aimed to reveal the common production methods of ten medium and large scale mushroom companies whose daily production capacities are above 1 ton in six regions. In this respect, all companies have been visited and communicated directly with company representatives and a survey comprising 65 questions about company, production facility, compost and casing soil, production systems, diseases and pests and packaging was made. The findings have suggested us that such companies have mostly a history of 15 years of time and have a land size of 10-50 thousand m2, while their mushroom production areas vary between in size and that they make use of technology in production and automation in their plants and they have quality management systems (ITU, ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and Global Gap ) and they employ generally qualified and experienced technicians or agriculture engineers and also that 40% of them receive consultancy and also that they use their own productions or standard ready mycelium planted compost and that they use domestic peat as casing material and that they package the mushrooms with their brands and sell to markets mostly and lastly that they conduct pre-sale quality sorting and grading. It was also seen that there is lack of food engineers employed and most of the companies do not receive consultancy, and that the waste compost is not evaluated correctly and that the covering material is not in the required standards and that there are even companies not doing any water analysis and that coal for heating and chemicals for disinfection are used and that diseases and pests are inevitable and last that they lack in processing different products.

Development of the cultivated mushroom farming which began to be produced in the 1960s in Turkey, has been more faster in the Mediterranean region than other regions. The development of mushroom cultivation has began to seen Marmara and İç Anadolu regions in recent years. The mushroom production which is very important for human health and nutrition, has been changing year to year (sometimes increase, sometimes decrease) in the province of Ankara. The first private mushrrom cultivation company had been established in1963. Up to date, the number of private enterprises has changed over the years in Ankara. This study was carried out by doing a survey with an active 12 enterprises which the annual production capacity of 10-600 ton. The enterprises were visited and problems were determined during the cultivation. As a result of the study, It was observed that there are problems in production and marketing phases and with surface soil material