"Weak mushroom cultivation technology, high susceptibility to seasonal changes, and poor resilience to risks" were once key bottlenecks restricting the development of China's shiitake mushroom industry. Seven Rivers Biotechnology believes that overcoming these difficulties requires the deep integration of agricultural production and information technology. What sparks will fly when traditional shiitake mushroom cultivation meets cutting-edge digital technology? Seven Rivers Biotechnology has provided its answer with a fully controllable, highly efficient, and intelligent modern smart factory.

Saying Goodbye to "Relying on the Weather": Production Enters the "Workshop Era"

Founded in 2000, Qihe Biotechnology initially started with just a dozen or so earthen greenhouses and manual labor in a small mountain village in Zibo. For over two decades, the company has kept pace with China's reform and opening up, persisting in its deep cultivation of the mushroom industry, gradually achieving a leap from simple greenhouses to industrialized, large-scale production. With the completion of the world's first intelligent shiitake mushroom spawn production plant, and now the establishment of the world's largest single shiitake mushroom production plant, Qihe Biotechnology has continuously promoted the transformation of traditional models and the upgrading of its industrial system through the integration of information technology and agricultural production, completely reshaping the way shiitake mushrooms are produced.

In 2019, Qihe Biotechnology embarked on its intelligent transformation, building the world's first intelligent shiitake mushroom factory. Traditional greenhouses were replaced by digitalized mushroom-growing greenhouses. Through an intelligent environmental control system, factors such as temperature, humidity, light, and ventilation are precisely controlled, creating an ideal "microclimate" for shiitake mushroom growth, achieving year-round, standardized, stable, and high-yield production. The use of three-dimensional cultivation racks further increases the yield per unit area far beyond traditional methods.

Implanting a "Smart Brain," Operations Move Towards Full Automation

In Qihe Biotechnology's factories, IoT sensors act like "nerve endings," collecting real-time data from the mushroom houses; the central control platform acts as the "brain," making optimal decisions based on big data and AI models; and the world's first automated shiitake mushroom spawn production equipment functions as the "hands and feet," achieving a fully automated production line operation from mixing, bagging, sterilization, to inoculation, puncturing, unpacking, and stacking. Labor costs have been significantly reduced, with personnel reduced by approximately two-thirds, efficiency increased fourfold, and product quality and consistency achieved a revolutionary leap.

Tens of thousands of sensors are distributed throughout the factory, collecting environmental data and growth images in real time and seamlessly transmitting them to the central control platform, building the "sensing system" of the smart factory.

Since 2019, Qihe Biotechnology has built seven smart factories in Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, and other regions, with an annual production capacity of 150 million spawn bags and 100 million kilograms of fresh mushrooms. Through continuous innovation and digital transformation, the company has successfully propelled shiitake mushroom production from traditional to intelligent methods, embarking on a path of high-efficiency and high-quality development and building a new industrial landscape.

Building a Closed-Loop Quality System for Full Traceability

Qihe Biotechnology has created a complete industrial chain, from strain research and development and intelligent production to smart sorting. In the packaging workshop, harvested shiitake mushrooms are automatically graded and packaged according to size, shape, and weight via an intelligent sorting line. Each package is accompanied by a traceability QR code, allowing users to check the factory, batch, and even growth environment data, truly achieving "traceable origin, traceable destination, and accountable responsibility." Mushroom spawn exported overseas also achieves full traceability, ensuring safety, transparency, and high quality from "a single seed" to "a single mushroom."

Qihe Biotechnology's intelligent transformation practice proves that technology is the fundamental path to agricultural modernization. It is no longer just a shiitake mushroom production company, but a high-tech agricultural company that "cultivates" the future with data and algorithms. Its factory-style and intelligent model not only expands the company's development space but also sets a benchmark worthy of emulation for modern agriculture, especially facility agriculture, in China and even globally.

The selection of Qihe as the venue for the 2025 International Shiitake Mushroom Supply Chain Conference is a testament to its strong leadership in driving industry transformation. When global businesspeople enter the smart factory and witness firsthand the end-to-end digital management from spawn cultivation to finished product packaging, they will see not only shiitake mushroom production but also a true representation of the future of agriculture. This grand event is expected to become a new milestone in the development of smart agriculture, propelling global facility agriculture towards a more efficient and sustainable future through technological empowerment.