Shiitake cultivation grows into major economic driver in Suizhou, C China's Hubei

"With automatic water spray, ventilation, and light control, shiitake cultivation is so much easier than before," Huang He, executive of an intelligent shiitake cultivation base of the Xinda professional cooperative for edible fungi cultivation in Suixian county, Suizhou city, central China's Hubei Province, told People's Daily Online.

Huang demonstrated to People's Daily Online how the environmental factors of shiitake greenhouses, such as temperature and humidity, can be easily controlled remotely with a 5G-based intelligent platform outside the greenhouses.

A species of shiitake produced in Suizhou city, central China's Hubei Province. (Photo/Xiao Luxin)

"Unlike traditional shiitake greenhouses, our greenhouse is like a 'smart butler'. It is equipped with an internal and external shading system, a ventilation system, automatic temperature control devices, and an automatic irrigation system using water and fertilizer integration, among other systems and devices," Huang said, operating shiitake greenhouses on the intelligent platform by touching virtual buttons on a screen.

With the help of smart equipment and big data, the shiitake cultivation base, located in Daqiao village, Gaocheng township, Suixian county, is able to achieve accurate control of its shiitake greenhouses in real time and guarantee a suitable growing environment 24 hours a day for shiitakes, thus producing shiitakes of greater quality and with better taste, according to Huang.

Thanks to the mushrooming smart agriculture, smart facilities have made it possible for one person to tend to multiple shiitake greenhouses just by touching a screen, said Gao Guibao, executive of the Xinda professional cooperative for edible fungi cultivation, who has been growing shiitakes for nearly 20 years.

The Juncheng fungi cultivation cooperative, another major professional cooperative for edible fungi cultivation in Suixian county, has also leveraged smart technologies to improve the capacity and efficiency of its shiitake cultivation base.

In 2021, the cooperative invested 15.9 million yuan ($2.22 million) and built 130 intelligent greenhouses. "Our cooperative makes the bags, ensures a 100-percent survival rate, teaches the planting techniques, and takes care of the sale of the products for shiitake farmers," said Tang Cheng, an executive of the cooperative.

"Shiitake growers can cultivate more than 7,000 sticks of shiitakes in a single greenhouse. They only need to pay 0.5 yuan in service fees for each stick of the shiitakes. The profit from each shiitake greenhouse is about 28,000 yuan. We grew more than 1 million sticks of shiitakes last year, which brought in an annual profit of more than 20 million yuan," Tang said.

The booming shiitake cultivation industry has effectively boosted the income of local farmers. A once impoverished villager working for local shiitake cultivation bases can earn more than 2,000 yuan a month.

Suixian county is now a well-known base for the processing and export of shiitakes. With shiitakes produced in the county being sold to regions and countries all over the world, including China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., the shiitake cultivation industry has emerged as a characteristic pillar industry driving the local economy.

At an expo of the edible fungi industry held in March 2023 in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province, Suizhou shiitake topped the list of the value of regional edible fungi brands in China in 2022 with an estimated value of nearly 10.68 billion yuan.

Today, Suizhou city is an important part of China's shiitake exports, while the city's shiitake cultivation industry serves as a pillar industry of the foreign trade of Hubei Province.

Boasting an annual output worth more than 30 billion yuan, Suizhou's shiitake cultivation industry benefits more than 300,000 citizens. It's estimated that the industry's annual output worth will exceed 50 billion yuan and its exports will surpass $1.2 billion by the year 2025.