The Edible Mushroom Industry High-Quality Development Conference was held on Jan 10 in Qingyuan county, Lishui, Zhejiang province. Experts, key production and sales entities, related management departments, and leading enterprises gathered for in-depth discussions.

As one of Zhejiang's top ten agricultural industries, edible mushrooms have seen significant growth over the past year, with a production scale reaching 1.07 billion sticks (bags), an annual output of 715,000 metric tons, and an annual output value of 5 billion yuan ($681.98 million).

Currently, the total output value of Zhejiang's edible mushroom industry exceeds 14 billion yuan, showing a high-quality development trend characterized by factory-based production, digital management, high-quality products, and green industry.

Workers process edible mushrooms in a factory in Zhejiang province. [Photo/Tide News]

"In the past, I had to handle everything from making mushroom sticks to harvesting the mushrooms myself. Now, I can buy inoculated sticks from processing plants or purchase pre-inoculated sticks from mushroom package factories," said the head of Longquan Zongping Family Farm in Lishui, who has been cultivating black fungus for 19 years and his cultivation scale has expanded from 30,000 sticks to over 200,000 sticks.

The farm is now collaborating with research teams to conduct trials on black fungus varieties and promote new cultivation techniques such as segmented fungus cultivation and facility-based rotations with rice.

During the conference, 15 mushroom products, including those produced by Qingyuan County Junbo Biotechnology Co, were recognized as "Zhejiang Excellent Mushrooms" by an expert panel.