More than 20 greenhouses are set up in Shangjiang Town, northwest Yunnan’s Shangri-La City, where workers are busy with harvesting the morel mushrooms these days. 

In mid-December last year, the Fuxing company planted morel mushrooms on more than 120 Chinese acres (8 hectares) of land. Now, the company harvests one ton of morels daily.

“In building up the plantation, Fuxing spent more than 5.6 million yuan on employing poverty-stricken villagers form 70 households,” said Hao Qiangzhi, the company’s deputy manager. The daily employment reached as many as 400 workers, who mainly come from Weixi County and Lijiang. 

 Su Huijiao and He Yuchun, both e-commerce traders from Lijiang, said the Shangri-La fungus is of sound quality and it has been favored by an increasing number of consumers online. Other Shangri-La specialties include matsutake and cordyceps sinensis.

This year, fresh morel mushrooms are sold at 120 yuan per kilogram, with the price of dried morels reaching over 1,000 yuan per kilo.

"During the Covid-19 epidemic, the company kept a minimum numbers of workers at the greenhouses, taking their temperatures daily and offering them masks to keep off the coronavirus,” said Hao Qiangzhi. 

Reporting by He Taijun; trans-editing by Wang Shixue