Best mushroom season in ten years: Daily earnings up to 70 KM

Wild mushrooms, porcini and chanterelles, have adorned Bosnian forests! Mushroom pickers claim this is the best season in the last ten years. A picker can earn between 60 and 70 KM per day, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Heavy rainfall that has affected Bosnia and Herzegovina since mid-May this year has favored the development of wild mushrooms. For many people from rural areas of Bosnia - especially the central part of the country - this also means an opportunity for good earnings.

Sifet Hodžić, from Novi Travnik, says he has been going to the mountainous areas of Vranica for days, where he picks porcini and chanterelles worth 60 to 70 KM during the day. The purchase price of mushrooms this year, he says, is somewhat lower than in previous years because they are abundant, but regardless, an average picker can earn a daily wage that is extremely good by Bosnian standards in eight hours of picking.

- Anyone who makes an effort this summer can earn an average monthly salary in BiH this way. We go to the forest early and pick mushrooms. This year is very favorable, mushrooms are abundant - says Sifet for Patria.

Nezir Tanović, a professor at the Agro-Mediterranean Faculty in Mostar, told the Patria agency that he believes the abundant growth of wild mushrooms in Bosnian forests will last until late autumn, which will bring great financial benefit to many people from rural parts of BiH.

- Only in the area of Bugojno, more than 200 tons of mushrooms have been purchased so far. Huge financial resources have gone to rural areas. That makes us happy - said Professor Tanović.

Bosnia and Herzegovina annually exports wild mushrooms worth 40 million KM, if wild medicinal herbs and berries are added. Professor Tanović expects that the export of mushrooms from BiH could increase this year, but it will still remain at about 15 percent of the potential that our country has and can use, writes NAP.