Since 1989, Nammex has pioneered mushroom extracts for the health and wellness industry, becoming the premier supplier of certified organic mushroom extracts. With Jeff’s 50 years of mushroom growing experience, we guarantee safe, effective products.
Focusing solely on mushrooms, our research identifies key active compounds, ensuring potency through scientific analysis. Our testing fingerprint is setting the industry standard.
We provide a full range of organic mushroom powders and extracts for wholesale distribution, meeting Good Manufacturing Practices. With fast, reliable North American shipping, we help your company make the right choice.
45 Years of Mushroom Growing Experience
Organically Certified Extracts
Industry Leader In Mushroom Analysis And Research
Guaranteed Quality Standards – Every Time
The Journey
Jeff Chilton’s journey into the mushroom industry began in 1973 at Ostrom Mushroom Farms in Olympia, Washington. Rising to Production Manager, he played a role in pioneering specialty mushrooms alongside Dr. Takashi Urayama, a Japanese scientist leading an R&D program. By 1978, fresh Shiitake mushrooms were introduced to the U.S. market at scale. His exposure to new mushroom species, along with a Fellowship at the Dutch School for Mushroom Growers in 1976, broadened his perspective on the industry’s potential.
With a decade of commercial mushroom-growing experience, Jeff co-authored The Mushroom Cultivator in 1983, a bestselling guide on small-scale cultivation. Moving to British Columbia, he established a mushroom spawn lab and specialty growing facility. His 1989 trip to China for the International Society for Mushroom Science conference revealed the country’s deep expertise in mushroom cultivation. The relationships he built over the next decade positioned Nammex, founded the same year, as a leader in the emerging field of health-promoting mushrooms.
A Message From Nammex Founder, Jeff Chilton
Since 1993, Nammex has been producing certified organic mushroom products. Organic certification requires adherence to an ethic that recognizes the importance of toxin-free production of food products. NAMMEX supports this ethic and promotes organically grown mushrooms as the surest way to realize the full potential of these products. Certified organic mushrooms have multiple benefits: as herbal medicine that is free of harmful chemicals and as sustainable agricultural crops that are grown without damaging the environment.
Our goal is to provide the highest quality mushroom extracts and do so in a manner that promotes the well being of the planet and all of its inhabitants. We strive to accomplish this by growing mushrooms the way nature intended. The way you and your customers expect and in harmony with the values that we share.
Chinese Organic Mushrooms
As a mushroom grower since 1973, and being well aware of the economics of mushroom production, it became readily apparent that it was not possible to grow mushrooms in North America and sell them as a nutritional supplement. In 2024, USDA confirmed that all “specialty mushrooms” grown in the US were sold into the fresh market.
After traveling to China in 1989 and meeting many scientists, economic development officials, mushroom growers and processors, the depth of knowledge and the ability to cultivate unlimited quantities of high quality mushrooms at a reasonable price made it clear that the future of mushroom cultivation was in China. It is appropriate since that is where Mushroom Cultivation began in the 12th Century.
As I traveled in China throughout the 1990’s I visited many provinces, as far east as Yunnan and as far north as Jilin. I attended many national and international conferences. I met growers in all areas and had a chance to see many mushroom farms and processing facilities. From these visits I was able to secure samples and begin to source mushrooms from selected companies in selected areas of China and start the process of building relationships.
n 1997, working with one of China’s first organic certification agencies in Nanjing, I organized an OCIA workshop for production of organically certified mushrooms. Close to 2 dozen people attended and this workshop initiated the development of the organic mushroom industry in China. By early 2000 the first organic mushrooms were being produced. Today, thousands of tons of certified organic mushrooms are being produced in China and all the mushrooms that we utilize are certified organic.
Committed To Quality
Nammex also educates consumers about US companies who are unable to produce real mushrooms and instead grow tempeh-like mycelium fermented grain, insinuating it is mushroom. Their negative anti-China statements and the USDA mushroom sales statistics demonstrate their unprincipled business practices. I have chosen to work towards bringing a new and important ethic to China and our entire supply chain. This is the only way in which North Americans can experience genuine functional mushroom extracts at an affordable price. It is also a positive change that brings a new awareness of environmental stewardship to China at large.
If you are wondering how we are able to produce such a high quality product in China, please read about the extensive quality control measures we take.
Achievements
Jeff with Lin Zhi-bin, Professor of Pharmacology at Beijing University. Dr. Lin is the top Ganoderma researcher in China and has published hundreds of research papers.
Jeff’s long-time associate, Professor Yang Qing-yao—developer of PSP and liquid spawn in China—established a research lab at Shanghai Normal University, where Nammex continues collaborations under his son, Yang Xiao-tong.
Professor Ruey Shyang Hseu, mycologist and author of the 1998 Ganoderma monograph, met Jeff at the 1989 ISMS conference. His lab leads in mapping the Ganoderma genome.
Sourcing mushroom extracts for your brand? Talk to the team that’s supplied the industry’s leading brands for over 30 years. Every Nammex sample ships with third-party verified analysis, beta-glucan content, and identity testing. Evaluate it against anything on the market.