Shiitake mushrooms help villagers increase income

In the golden autumn season, shiitake mushrooms grow well on the mushroom sticks neatly arranged in the planting base of Professional Farmers’ Cooperative in Taoxing Village, Shipai Town, Longshan County, and workers are busy sorting, harvesting, and crating them.

“The shiitake mushrooms have entered the fruiting period. We have already sold 500,000 kilograms at a market price of 2.5 to 3 yuan per kilogram, and can produce another 250,000 kilograms of mushrooms, with a total output value of 6 million yuan. It is expected to generate 600,000 yuan in revenue for the collective economy,” said Xiang Yao, Party secretary of Taoxing Village.
The automated inoculation equipment is running at high speed at the mushroom stick inoculation workshop, accelerating the production of traditional mushroom sticks. “We have three automated mushroom stick production lines that can produce 10,800 mushroom sticks per day,” said Zhu Jirong, technical director of the base. They cultivate about 750,000 kilograms of mushrooms every year.

In 2023, the base added three sterilization chambers to improve the high-temperature sterilization process of mushroom stick production, and introduced temperature and humidity control equipment to achieve intelligent and automated operations.

Sales channels are the key to good industrial development. The village has established cooperative relationships with four collective economic cooperatives in Zhuping Community of Shipai Town and Yuejin Village of Liye Town in Longshan County, Yuxi Village in Jishou City, as well as Yama Village in Baojing County. This year, the village has provided 430,000 mushroom sticks for them. The mushroom drying plant is also under construction and will provide dried mushrooms for  major enterprises and units for sale. Fresh mushrooms are sold based on contracts, and mainly sold to Hubei, Chongqing, Hunan and other places.

“I have worked in the base for three years, with free food and accommodation. I can earn over 3,000 yuan per month,” said a villager, who was harvesting mushrooms.

The village has established a comprehensive industrial base integrating planting, processing, and sales, which has attracted 10 households nearby to plant mushrooms, and offered jobs for more than 500 persons in the surrounding area, with a total of 1 million yuan of wages paid every year.

Last year, the Taoxing village collective distributed dividends to villagers for the first time, and each household received living materials worth over 100 yuan.

“At present, the mushroom industry has helped farmers boost their income, which is just a stage goal that we have achieved. In the future, we will also make our mushrooms well-known nationwide,” said Tian Peng, Party secretary of Shipai Town.


Chinese source: hunantoday