To fill the gap in the production of golden needle mushrooms in the United States, Shanghai enterprises have set sail for the first time to build a smart edible mushroom factory in China | Edible Mushrooms | Smart
On July 1st, Shanghai Fengke Biotechnology Co., Ltd.'s subsidiary, Singapore Fengke, announced that it will jointly build the first overseas edible mushroom smart factory in the Chinese edible mushroom industry with the largest Chinese brand operator in the Asian food market in the United States, Huayuan Food Group, in Houston, USA. This will fill the gap in the domestic production of golden needle mushrooms in the United States. This cooperation will also be an important step for China's edible mushroom industry to go global.
China is the world's largest consumer and producer of edible mushrooms, with common types of mushrooms such as shiitake mushrooms, golden needle mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms accounting for over 90% of global production. As the pioneer of industrialized cultivation of white jade mushrooms and crab flavored mushrooms in China, the white jade mushrooms and crab flavored mushrooms produced by Shanghai Fengke are one of the best-selling fresh mushrooms in China, and also popular in 57 countries overseas for 15 years. After more than 20 years of development, Shanghai Fengke has relied on strong technical support to establish multiple highly automated intelligent production factories for edible mushrooms nationwide.
With the acceleration of global integration, as one of the world's main consumer markets, the demand for edible mushrooms in the United States is increasing day by day. However, the United States highly relies on imports of edible mushrooms, such as the golden needle mushroom, which has always been imported from China and South Korea. With the soaring logistics costs, the prices of imported edible mushrooms are also increasing day by day.
In this cooperation between China and the United States, Shanghai Fengke will use its rich experience and technological accumulation to build a brand new intelligent edible mushroom production factory overseas. It plans to build an intelligent manufacturing factory for golden needle mushrooms with a daily production capacity of 50 tons by 2024. This will not only fill the gap in American self-produced golden needle mushrooms, but also adopt advanced technological means and strict environmental protection concepts throughout the process, achieving pollution-free, environmentally friendly, and green sustainable development.
The project base will utilize local high-quality water resources, strictly control the quality of raw materials, and monitor the entire production process to ensure that the taste and nutritional value of the golden needle mushroom are fully guaranteed. At the same time, the project will also use biotechnology and circular economy models to carry out biodegradation and recycling of bacterial residue, reduce the impact on the environment during the production process, and achieve a dual improvement in economic and environmental benefits.
The confidence of Fengke Company in crossing the ocean this time stems from the deep integration paradigm and new cooperation mechanism between industry, academia, and research formed by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences Edible Fungi Institute over the past 20 years. The two sides have jointly established a breeding platform for the rational flow and allocation of important breeding resources such as modern biotechnology, high-end professional talents, and research and development pilot platforms. Deep cooperation and exchanges have been carried out in the innovation of factory production technology for rare wood rot fungi, the research and development of high-quality and high-yield new varieties of edible fungi, and the protection of independent intellectual property rights of varieties. This has effectively enhanced the driving force for collaborative development and scientific research innovation between institutions and enterprises, and formed a series of demonstrative scientific and technological achievements.
Of particular note, in recent years, the Institute of Edible Fungi of Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Fengke Company have collaborated to establish a factory based molecular breeding center for wood rot fungi. Together, they have created five major platforms for germplasm resource evaluation, breeding of high-quality varieties, big data analysis, manufacturing of high-quality varieties, and popular science education, creating a seed industry base that meets national innovation standards. As of now, Shanghai Fengke has applied for the plant variety rights of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for a total of 15 new varieties of factory cultivation, and 8 new varieties of factory cultivation have been recognized by Shanghai, obtaining 6 patent authorizations and publishing 12 high-level research papers.
Fungi are the industry chips of the edible mushroom industry. With the support of the scientific and technological strength of the Edible Fungi Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences in the seed industry, Fengke Company has greater courage to go abroad and set sail in the ocean of the world economy.
Industry insiders point out that overseas investment in building edible mushroom factories will bring multiple benefits. Firstly, strong collaboration can further promote the high-quality edible mushroom market for Shanghai Fengke and meet the diverse needs of domestic and foreign consumers. Secondly, in the global industrial chain layout, this cooperation will help optimize resource allocation, expand market areas, and achieve the connection between upstream raw material supply and downstream product demand. The global market experience and opportunities brought by "going abroad" will also promote the innovation and progress of China's edible mushroom industry in technological innovation and differentiated markets, which is an important measure for China's edible mushroom industry to actively embrace the world.
