The overseas-educated female PhD who sells edible fungi leads villagers out of poverty toward prosperity
Gutian County, located in the mountainous area of eastern Fujian, is known as the "Capital of Edible Fungi in China." Its "Gutian white fungus" (Gutian Tremella) is a national geographical indication product, and its annual output ranks first in the world. However, in recent years, the shrinking market for Gutian white fungus is also an indisputable fact.
This became the original motivation for Yao Liyun to return to her hometown and start a business. In a recent interview with a China News Service reporter, she said she hopes that through her own efforts and her team's cooperation, she can integrate the resources of the edible fungi industry, change the development status of her hometown's traditional industry, and lead the villagers to escape poverty, achieve prosperity, and strive for a better life.
Yao Liyun, 36, is a native of Gutian. After earning a master's degree in sociology from Nanjing University, she was sent by the state to study for a doctorate at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Unexpectedly, after graduating, this female PhD who focused on China research topics returned to her hometown to do e-commerce and sell edible fungi.
In October 2013, Yao Liyun returned to Gutian to participate in the operations of Gutian County Juzhentang Food Co., Ltd. (Juzhentang for short), which she had previously co-founded with her father and friends. Juzhentang started by relying on e-commerce platforms, building an integrated platform for agricultural products and selling dried edible fungi, while also dealing in dried fruit products, miscellaneous grains, and other local specialties.
Yao Liyun said: "These products come from the cooperative formed by the 124 local farmers I lead." Gutian County grows 36 varieties of edible fungi, with an annual output of more than 700,000 tonnes. With the guarantee of her hometown's edible fungi output and quality, Juzhentang's online turnover has continued to increase.
Among Gutian County's edible fungi products, Gutian white fungus is renowned at home and abroad, with an annual output of 20,000 tonnes today, accounting for more than 90% of global output. But through analysis and research, Yao Liyun realized that further product upgrading and differentiated competition were needed to tap into its value.
"Nobeier Space Capsule Fresh White Fungus" emerged as a result. This is a live fresh white fungus in an organic nutrient jar jointly developed by Yao Liyun, relying on the technical foundation of her father's 48 years of fungus cultivation experience, together with the Fungi Research Institute of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.
"The product itself is a kind of core competitiveness, and e-commerce can bring this advantage into full play." As a representative of Gutian's local specialty products, "Nobeier Space Capsule Fresh White Fungus" became a commemorative gift for the inaugural service of the Hefei-Fuzhou high-speed railway and has spread across the country.
In Yao Liyun's entrepreneurial blueprint, a complete white fungus industry is a full industry chain covering everything from primary agricultural products to deeply processed products.
She proposed the market positioning of "fast-moving leisure foods": "In addition to persistently tapping the added value of roughly processed products, cooperating with white fungus deep-processing enterprises to develop products such as instant-soak white fungus, white fungus pastries, and even white fungus masks that meet modern people's demand for fast consumption is what I hope to integrate and promote."
Juzhentang has successively carried out strategic cooperation with a "China Time-Honored Brand" pastry shop and a food company to jointly develop ready-to-eat white fungus pastry series such as white fungus-filled pastries; it has also cooperated with local deep-processing enterprises in Fujian to launch instant-soak white fungus soup made with FD freeze-drying technology, continuously raising the added value of Gutian white fungus.
Today, Yao Liyun has begun exploring high-end deep-processing fields such as white fungus health products, skincare products, and biopharmaceuticals. She hopes to use the internet as a platform, rely on technology to upgrade products, and strive to build herself into "a leader in the global white fungus value chain."