For years, Jala gathered thousands of bacteria, fungi and other organisms from natural resources in the Himalayas, and by gene sequencing, the group developed a special strain bank.

多年来，贾拉从喜马拉雅山的自然资源中收集了数千种细菌、真菌和其他生物，通过基因测序，该小组开发了一个特殊的菌株库。

They debuted as e-commerce livestreamers and sold agricultural products like corn, cherries and edible fungus.

他们以电子商务直播的身份首次亮相，销售玉米、樱桃和食用菌等农产品。

Among the hundreds of products, caterpillar fungus and yak jerks are the most popular items, based on Alibaba stats.

Probiotics are live microorganisms - including yeast, bacteria and fungi - which can generate health benefits for human bodies.

"Founded in 2015, the company primarily sells shiitake mushrooms, mu er mushrooms, other edible fungi and other agricultural products - 200 in total.

Headquartered in Lishui, Zhejiang, Farmmi is an agricultural products supplier and primarily processes and sells Shiitake mushrooms, Mu Er mushrooms, other edible fungi, and other agricultural products, according to the prospectus.

The efforts include curing the white fungus disease on the coffee plants, donating basic necessities including huller machines, pulpers, sorting equipment and processing storage, in addition to finding sales channels home and abroad for local farmers.

Seeds, fresh apples, juice, vegetables and edible fungi were the main agriproducts Gansu exported in 2023, according to the customs authorities in Lanzhou, the provincial capital.

Among them, the export of vegetables and edible fungi logged remarkable year-on-year growth of 73.8 percent and 32.9 percent, reaching 350 million yuan and 310 million yuan, respectively.

Typical health foods such as caterpillar fungus and Ganoderma lucidum had high sales.

Yu, founder of private tutoring giant New Oriental Education & Technology, and his colleagues debuted as e-commerce livestreamers and sold－wait for it－farm products like corn, cherries and edible fungus.

Policy, innovative tech-inspired investments and ecological farming create magicIn Northwest China's Shaanxi province, famous for its rich coal resources, Miaowan, a township in Tongchuan city, is now better known as "Shiitake Mushroom Town" because the edible fungus business has transformed lives and society.

They bought breeding sticks for edible fungus and grew shiitake mushrooms at home.

"I plan to build a new base to grow edible fungus this year and expand an existing one," said Sun, who is now targeting 200 million yuan in total revenue this year.

In contrast, travelers from other regions come here for fungus.

Only when mushrooms are confirmed to be not poisonous, can tourists take the fungi home with them.

Currently, Oriental Selection mainly sells books and agricultural products including corn, cherries and edible fungus.

Villager Liu Huafang is a grower of purplexa0Ganoderma lucidum— a medicinal fungus — in Dahe town.

Since 2019, he has planted the fungus in broadleaf forest.

According to the county's forestry and grassland bureau, Wuping county boasts around 300,000 mu of broadleaf forest that's fit for planting the fungus, for which only one tenth has been used and more is to be developed.

This year, the cooperative planted 13.33 hectares of black fungi, creating an estimated net profit of 5,000 yuan ($760) per mu (666.67 square meters).

Black fungus production workshops in Zhongshan county offer jobs to locals and are prioritized for poor households, to allow them to earn a monthly salary of more than 2,000 yuan each.

"Besides soy and pea proteins that have been widely used to produce meat alternatives in China, fungus protein is also a high-quality ingredient, which can improve food taste and nutrition," said Yang Yongping, chairman of Shanghai Xuerong Biotechnology Co, Ltd. Xuerong, a leading edible fungus supplier in China with a history of over 20 years, has recently invested in the field of plant-based meat to produce fungus-based meat substitutes, making full use of its expertise in fungus production.

It will use fungus directly in products that taste like real meat, and it will also extract proteins from fungus to produce fungus-based meat substitutes.

"The meatless meat industry for us is a step further into the deep processing of edible fungus.

Located in the Qinling Mountains, Jinmi has emerged from poverty in recent years by developing the black fungus industry.

According to Zhang Pei, Zhashui's deputy county chief, sales of black fungus via livestreaming events during just one night equaled the county's total online sales of such products for four months.

During a tour of Zhashui county, Shaanxi province, on April 20, President Xi Jinping had a brief chat with a group of merchants who were using livestreaming to market muer, or "wood ear", a popular black fungus.

Data from Taobao, the e-commerce platform, showed that the shop recorded on average one order per second for the fungus on April 21.

Sensing huge opportunities in the bamboo fungus industry, he started a business and devoted himself to research and development.

During the Singles Day shopping gala on Nov 11 last year, his bamboo fungus was promoted and sold by livestreaming internet celebrities.

"A total of 600 to 700 boxes of bamboo fungus were sold that day alone, which was much higher than our average sales volume," said Gao.

With the help of agricultural specialists from East China's Fujian province, locals are trying to grow rice and mushrooms out of the special wild grass, similar to some fungi grown from tree matter.

One of the purchase orders from Mongolia lists 51 kinds of vegetables, 19 kinds of fruits, six kinds of fungi and two spices.

China sent more than 2,000 agricultural technicians to teach the growing techniques for hybrid rice, fungi and many other crops to more than 70 countries.