Mushroom industry plots a new path for brand upgrading

For a long time, scale and output have been the central themes of the development of China's edible fungi industry, but at the "9th China Mushroom Festival," brand became a hot topic and began to lead a new direction of development.

Edible fungi are rich in nutrients and delicious in taste, and are known as "21st-century health food." With the rapid development of factory production in recent years, the scale and output of edible fungi have risen rapidly, and their output value ranks only after grain, cotton, oil, vegetables, and fruit, placing sixth in agriculture. China has also become the largest producer of edible fungi, with output accounting for 70% of the world's total and an output value that has already reached 180 billion.

However, because the marketing of edible fungi has long been rather primitive and mainly relies on wholesale agricultural markets, the added value of products is difficult to reflect. Liu Ziqiang, secretary-general of the Edible Fungi Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products, believes that against the broader backdrop of agricultural transformation and upgrading, and under the requirement of consumption upgrading to stimulate domestic demand, branding of the edible fungi industry is imperative. "Our experts are also troubled and confused: once a new variety appears on the market, the industry scale expands rapidly, price competition follows immediately, and the healthy development of the industry is constrained."

Liang Jian, deputy editor-in-chief of Brand Agriculture and Market, believes that at present, many thought-provoking phenomena have appeared in agricultural product marketing, such as "high-end defeats low-end, specialized defeats comprehensive, individualized defeats rigid." Under the premises of changes in the market environment, changes in consumer groups, and changes in brand communication, the edible fungi industry must, on the basis of technological innovation, target the different needs of consumers, create star products through vivid personalized packaging, and take the path of branding. "This is the best of times, the worst of times, and also an era of change," Liang Jian said.

Wang Sheng, president of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, pointed out that supermarkets and production enterprises are a community of interests, both aiming to meet consumer demand. Supermarkets have many star products, but not one of them is an edible fungus. Nowadays, consumers' brand awareness is constantly increasing, and more and more are choosing geographical indication products, branded agricultural products, and imported high-quality agricultural products. It is necessary to further gain consumer recognition through source traceability, category expansion, and quality improvement. Brand promotion should not proceed only from the perspective of experts, but should start from the standpoint of consumers.

Li Linchun, specially invited researcher at the CARD China Agricultural Brand Research Center of Zhejiang University, analyzed that the current production situation of edible fungi is that there are categories but no brands, and brand awareness and recognition are too low. In view of this, he proposed the view of regional brands and enterprise brands developing in parallel. "When the strength of enterprise brands is limited, regional brands can be built through the government as a driving force, thereby leading enterprise brands into the market." He also used Baidu Index to conduct an in-depth analysis of the consumption market structure of edible fungi.