Australian CEA mushroom production technology gets $2.1M research boost

The Queensland research team will focus on exotic and native mushroom cultivation.

Researchers at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are rounding out the year with good news. They’ve been awarded $2.1 million to advance technologies aimed at expanding the country’s controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) exotic and native mushroom production. Driven in part by Australia’s burgeoning domestic demand for mushrooms and mushroom-based foods, the project is funded through the Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre and industry partner Kenon Corporation, Queensland’s largest exotic mushroom producer. The researchers will focus on the following goals:

• Develop small-scale and mobile production modules to enable in-country CEA production.
• Reduce the need for mushroom imports.
• Source and develop Australian native mushroom production with industry partner.
• Develop mushroom substrate using Australia’s abundant biomass and organic waste.
• Develop new mushroom-based foods.

Associate Professor Zhanying Zhang, from QUT School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering and Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy, is the project lead. Co-researchers are Dr. James Strong, from QUT School of Biology and Environmental Science, and Professor YuanTong Gu and Yiman Sun from QUT School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering.