Planting edible fungi with an annual output of more than 30 million tons has gradually become an important part of poverty alleviation in rural areas.

As the representative of healthy food, edible fungus has been loved and sought after by consumers in recent years. The reporter recently learned from the China Edible Fungi Association that in 2014, the total output of edible fungi in China was 32.7 million tons, with an output value of 225.81 billion yuan. Gao Maolin, executive vice president of the China Edible Mushroom Association, said that the advantages of producing areas of the edible mushroom industry have been initially formed, and it is a typical example of the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas and an important starting point for accurate poverty alleviation.

According to the association, in 2014, the country exported 582000 tons of edible fungi, earning 2.906 billion US dollars in foreign exchange. By 2015, there were 626 industrial production enterprises of edible fungi in China, with an output of 1.83 million tons. At present, there are 936 species of edible fungi in China, of which nearly 60 can be cultivated artificially and 36 have been cultivated on a commercial scale. The annual output of seven kinds of mushrooms, including Lentinus edodes, Auricularia auricula, Pleurotus ostreatus, which are common to consumers, have all exceeded 1 million tons.

Gao Maolin said that there are more than 100 counties with an annual output value of more than 100 million yuan, with a working population of 20 million. It has formed a large number of major production bases of well-known edible fungi, such as Dongning, Heilongjiang, Xiuyan, Liaoning, and Pingquan, Hebei. The edible mushroom industry has made a positive contribution to our country's prosperity of rural economy and promoting farmers to get rich.

Gao Maolin also said frankly that with the rapid development, China's edible mushroom industry is also faced with problems such as outstanding strain problems, unsolved cultivation techniques, slow brand building and so on. In this regard, the Association will, in conjunction with the Lianyungang Municipal Government, hold a conference on China's edible mushroom industry in March this year to bring together experts and enterprises inside and outside the industry to discuss the sustainable development of the edible mushroom industry, the transformation of the industry and the introduction of the "Internet +" model.