If walkers pick up a few porcini mushrooms for their evening meal in the autumn, nobody has anything against it. Entirely different are commercial collectors who take tons of mushrooms to sell. The country sees only isolated cases.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The NRW Ministry of Forestry has rejected complaints from the forest owners' association about large-scale mushroom theft by commercial mushroom picking teams in the forests. There is currently "no trend recognizable that commercial theft of mushrooms in NRW forests is increasing," said a ministry spokesman on Saturday. There have always been isolated cases in the past, but there are no signs of an increase.
Forest Minister Silke Gorißen (CDU) nevertheless made it clear: “Please only collect delicious edible mushrooms such as chanterelles or porcini mushrooms in moderation and exclusively for your own use. Anyone who collects mushrooms on a commercial basis is committing theft.” Porcini mushrooms are expensive: dried, they cost around 100 euros per kilogram in stores, sometimes significantly more.
The forest owners' association had complained about organized teams that took the expensive mushrooms out of the forest by the kilo or even hundredweight. According to the association, which sees itself as a mouthpiece for around 150,000 private forest owners in North Rhine-Westphalia, the professional collectors come with headlamps, whistles, radios for communicating with one another and huge baskets.
Small amounts of wild-growing mushrooms may be taken into Germany for personal use. In practice, the authorities assumed two kilograms per collector and day, as the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry made clear. A ministry spokesman said that violations in nature reserves that clearly exceeded the two-kilo rule could result in four-digit fines.
In addition, it is literally vital to know exactly which mushroom ends up in the basket, the ministry emphasized. "There are highly toxic doppelgangers whose poisons are time-delayed and, in the worst case, deadly." The early morning and evening hours should be taboo for collectors, because this is when the game in the forest needs rest.
