Our Story
Fresh-Picked Facts & Homegrown Company History
Monterey Mushrooms® began way back in 1971 on a mushroom farm in Watsonville, California.
In 1988, when Amfac, Inc. decided to sell the Monterey Mushrooms brand, they asked the dedicated general manager of their Royal Oaks, California, farm if he’d be interested in buying the business.
That manager, Shah Kazemi, was a Persian immigrant who had come to the U.S. as a teen. He was dedicated to the Monterey Mushrooms employees, their union and the industry, negotiating labor contracts for his team alongside Cesar Chavez during the farmworker strikes of the late 1970s.
Without hesitation and with the help of both family and stakeholders, Shah purchased Monterey Mushrooms in 1988. Under Shah’s ownership, Monterey Mushrooms became a private company once again and started growing. Soon, Shah began steadily buying farms across North America, creating a supply chain that’s unprecedented in the mushroom industry.
Today Monterey Mushrooms is the largest grower of fresh mushrooms in North America, responsible for a significant percentage of mushroom production. We produce fresh mushrooms and mushroom products for supermarkets, club stores, foodservice operators, distributors, institutions and food manufacturers. Product lines include: fresh, value added, organic, mushroom powder, supplements, marinated, frozen, ingredients and sauces.
In addition to our culinary brand, Monterey Mushrooms’ affiliate companies, Amycel & Spawn Mate, develop and produce mushroom spawn for growers across the industry. In addition, they produce patented growing supplements to support mushroom growers around the world.
Monterey Mushrooms is proud to be a private company, not run like a big corporation. We have stakeholders but, unlike publicly traded companies, we’re operated with hands-on, intimate ownership, including a large portion of our current management who began their careers on our farms.
We employ 4,000 people in North America. More than half the workforce has been with us for more than 10 years.
Our mushroom growing and packing operations are in North American farms, located in California, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, Pennsylvania and Mexico.
Our two processing facilities prepare products made with fresh mushrooms in Bonne Terre, Missouri, and San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Considered to be the person who popularized portabella mushrooms, CEO Shah Kazemi has been consumed by mushrooms since graduating from the University of Washington, with two B.S. degrees and an M.B.A. He participates in two committees of the United Farm Worker Board of Directors, the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan and the Juan de la Cruz Pension Plan.
Shah’s son and company vice president, Kyon Kazemi, is following the entrepreneur path his father started more than 45 years. Kyon holds a degree in business and culinary arts. He is a bonafide mushroom farmer and a key member of the company’s executive team.
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