Ever since the New China was founded in 1949, the
production of edible fungi in Mingdong region has developed rapidly. It
has been standardized, intensive, industialized and become one of the
supporting industries for earning foreign exchange and developing
agricultural economy. It not only has made great contribution in the
people's struggling against poverty and reaching the better-off level of
life, but also devoted a lot to the local financial revenue. Mingdong area
has now become the fungi-producing region where the total output ranks the
first in the county. There are the greatest varieties of fungi in this
area and the most people are involved in growing fungi. The counties of
Gutian, Pingnan and Shouning enjoy the reputation of "Home of Chinese
Edible Fungi", "Home of Chinese Summer Mushrooms", and
"Home of Chinese Mushrooms".
Scientific technologies have been constantly adopted in the cultivation of
the edible fungi in Mingdong area. Through 30 years' development, both the
quantity and quality of fungi have achieved continuous breakthrough. A
course of agro microbiology is set up in the Ningde Agricultural School.
This course combines the research, teaching and practice of edible fungi
production and is open to students from all over Fujian Province. 30
public and private-run research institutes, over 1,000 stations for the
production of hybrid seeds and fungi culture stations have been set up in
every county (or city). Just in the county of Gutian, there are 13
research institutes run by the local people; 42 local specialists with
professional titles over the primary levels; and 130 outstanding
households who produce great amounts of mushroom; and 40,000 experts of
edible fungi production. The significant research fulfillments of the
whole city are listed as follows:
In 1980,the first trial cultivation technology of transplanting mushroom
from the indoors to the outdoors succeeded and screened the
"8211" bacterial strain. The per unit yield increased 34.6%,
thus gained the 3rd prize of the National Scientific and Technologic
Progress Award and the 1st prize of the Comprehensive Development of the
Mountainous Area of Fujian Province. It enabled the mushroom production in
Ningde City to develop rapidly and become one of the three mushroom bases
in Fujian. In 1981,tremella were cultivated in plastic bags in Gutian, and
then the method of cultivating tremella in cross-lying bags was invented.
Compared with bottled cultivation, the output was greatly increased. In
1983,cottonseed shell was successfully used to grow tremella in place of
wood scraps. The output of tremella in Gutian in 1984 exceeded 2,000 tons,
which took up 80% of the total output of tremella in the whole country and
ranked the top position in China. Therefore, Gutian County is famous as
" Home of tremella". In 1980, also in Gutian the method of
outdoors cultivation of mushroom with wood scraps proved successful, which
increased the output 3 times more than the one cultivated in segmented
woods. The production period was shortened by 2/3. This achievement
received the 2nd prize of the Provincial Scientific and Technological
Progress Award, and the Gold Award at the achievements exhibition of the
National Spark Plan Projects. In 1988, Pingnan County took the
geographical advantages and successfully carried out the technological
research of the counter-season cultivation of mushroom, which made the
production of mushroom become an annual practice. This achievement met the
international advanced level and won the 3rd prize of the Provincial
Scientific and Technological Program Award. In 1991,Shouning county and
Pingnan County experimented on the technology of artificially accelerating
the formation of the flower-shape mushrooms and achieved success. As a
result, the production of mushroom made a leap from the increase of
quantity to the increase of quality. A production scale of an annual
output of 2 billion cubes with a value of 6 billion Yuan was formed in the
city. This achievement met the international advanced level so it received
the 3rd prize of the Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress
Award .In 1999, the "9901" new bacterial strain of tremella was
bred in Gutian, which gave tremella a natural flavor but without being
whitened by brenstone. In 1992 in Fu'an the new pasteurization method of
cultivating the straw mushroom was successfully carried out in the
mushroom house. The output increased 2-3 times more than the primary
cultivation of straw mushroom. From then on, the mushroom houses were used
in an annual period (mushroom---straw mushroom---straw
mushroom---mushroom). This achievement gained the 3rd prize of the
Municipal Scientific and Technological Progress award.
The flourishment of the edible fungi has brought along the development of
the Mingdong packing industry, over 300 dehydration factories, over 200
cooling fresh keeping factories, 5 bactericide factories and 130
authorized shops of primary mushroom materials. More than 10,000
salespersons are doing fungi business all over the country. Just in Gutian
County, there are 100,000 mushroom farmers, over 5000 "mushroom
bosses". Since 1985 the export of mushroom has taken the top position
in China. In 1998, the output of edible fungi took up 1/3 of the total
output value of Gutian County. The edible fungi markets built in Gutian in
1990 covers 6,636 m2. Besides edible fungi product exchange halls, there
are auxiliary service equipments such as: the primary accessory materials,
the plant equipments and business discussion offices, etc. The average
number of the traders in the market reaches 5,000.The average volume of
mushroom business tops over 9,000 kg, and that of tremella is more than
6,500kg. The market was ranked one of the ten specialized markets in
China. In 1999 the total output of edible fungi in Ningde took up 1/4 of
the whole output of Fujian Province and the value took up nearly 1/3. The
products were exported to H.K., Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe,
North America and the CIS, etc.