(Rural Travel·Looking at Revitalization) Nanzhang, Hubei- -Little Mushrooms- Promote Farming and Go Abroad
On October 13, representatives from overseas Chinese-language media gathered in Donggong Town, Nanzhang County, Hubei Province, to savor a delightful menu featuring dishes like mushroom-steamed chicken and mushroom pudding. The event highlighted the region’s transformation of the humble “small mushroom” into a significant industry, serving as a vital source of income and wealth generation for the local community.
Nanzhang is situated in a transitional area between the northwestern mountainous region of Hubei and the hilly central part, characterized by a landscape where “eight parts are mountains and half part is water and farmland.” The area boasts a high forest coverage and significant temperature fluctuations between day and night, creating ideal conditions for the cultivation of edible fungi. In 2023, the edible mushroom industry in Nanzhang County achieved an impressive output value of 4.2 billion yuan.
Historically, Nanzhang primarily relied on small-scale, traditional farming for mushroom cultivation, which lacked modernization and mechanization. However, in recent years, the local government has restructured the industry to explore deep-processing techniques, strengthening and extending the supply chain for edible mushrooms, turning the small mushrooms into a large-scale industry.
As I stepped into the Yunnong Mushroom Industry processing workshop, the scent of mushrooms filled the air, and workers were bustling about the assembly line. Sales manager Wang Hao shared that their main export markets include countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, with overseas sales reaching 23 million USD in 2023.
In the processing facility, mushrooms harvested from the cultivation sheds undergo various procedures such as cleaning and low-temperature vacuum frying, transforming them into ready-to-eat mushroom sauces and crispy mushroom snacks. “Leveraging product value additions is the key to thriving in overseas markets,” Wang noted. The company has embraced a holistic development approach that integrates cultivation, processing R&D, and export trade, enabling them to stand out in the competitive edible mushroom market.
Through a “company + cooperative” model, the firm links farmers to the industry, providing jobs for local residents and boosting employment in neighboring towns. This initiative is part of a broader trend in Nanzhang, which has cultivated nearly a thousand primary edible mushroom enterprises in recent years, benefiting over 13,000 farming households.
Today, the edible mushroom industry is rapidly emerging as a driving force for rural revitalization in Nanzhang. County Party Secretary Luo Xingbin emphasized that by 2025, the production value of Nanzhang mushrooms is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan, with foreign trade revenues projected to reach 500 million USD and processing value surpassing 1.5 billion yuan.
