Howdy Mycopreneurs,
Welcome to the final Mycopreneur Newsletter of 2025. It’s a round up of interesting mushroom stories from around the globe, ranging from breakthrough technologies leveraged to cultivate previously exclusively wild mushrooms in Yunnan Province, China to reports of Israeli forces detaining mushroom foragers in Syria to the detention of a psilocybin mushroom chocolate dealer in Kyiv, Ukraine among other current events.
At the bottom of the newsletter is a ‘Mycopreneur 2025 Wrapped’ segment. Thanks for reading, and Happy New Years ( :
Innovation in the Chinese mushroom industry has led to the world’s first cultivation operation for Bolete mushrooms - a mycorrhizal species that require a symbiotic relation ship between certain plant and tree roots, making them historically impossible to cultivate.
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Nestled in the remote mountains of Zhejiang province, Qingyuan county has transformed its lush forests into a source of sustainable wealth through edible fungi cultivation, blending centuries-old tradition with modern technology in harmony with nature.
A notable example is the county's Junbo Biotechnology Co Ltd, which boasts over three decades of experience in shiitake mushroom production and sales, and now invests in smart technologies to boost productivity.
“We have phased out traditional drying and sorting methods and deployed 53 intelligent drying units”
With artificial intelligence-powered color sorters, grading accuracy has risen to 95 percent. Each metric ton of fresh mushrooms dried now saves 370 kilograms of firewood and reduces carbon emissions by 230 kg.
The Syrian Arab News Agency has reported that Israeli forces detained 5 young men who were foraging for mushrooms in the Daraa governorate in Syria.
The arrests came amid a renewed Israeli military presence in the occupied Golan region. A day earlier, Israeli forces pushed into the village of Taranga and advanced towards the outskirts of Jabatha al-Khashab in northern Quneitra, residents said.
The latest incident adds to growing reports of Israeli incursions and detentions in southern Syria, as Israeli forces continue to operate beyond the ceasefire lines in the area.
The region of Syria where the foragers were detained
ECO GLADE LLP has invested KZT 11.3 billion in constructing the largest mushroom production complex in Kazakhstan, located in the Kyzylzhar Special Economic Zone in North Kazakhstan, according to APK Novosti.
The modern farm is one of the largest and most technologically advanced of its kind in the country. The facility can produce up to 2,400 tonnes of mushrooms annually, covering the full processing cycle to ensure high product quality. The project is expected to boost the local economy by creating jobs, increasing the share of domestic mushrooms on the local market, and reducing reliance on imports.
Plans are underway to further expand the complex, including the construction of an on-site compost plant with a capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year, and increasing the mushroom farm's production to 4,800 tonnes annually.
Despite holding three university degrees, Nguyen Tien Dat chose not to remain in the city. Instead, the 27-year-old returned to his hometown in the Mekong Delta to start a smart mushroom farm - now earning tens of millions of dong each month (the equivalent to thousands of U.S. dollars)
In Kyiv, police exposed a 31-year-old man who set up a laboratory in his apartment for growing psilocybin mushrooms and sold them, disguised as chocolate bars. This was reported by the Kyiv police, writes UNN.
Police found out that the man grew psychotropic mushrooms in his apartment, disguised them in chocolate bars, and sold them in Kyiv, handing them over to buyers face-to-face. He found clients through acquaintances and also sold psilocybin mushrooms in their "pure" form.
According to preliminary estimates, the value of the seized substances at "black market" prices exceeds one million Ukranian hryvnias ($23,670)
More mushroom stories from around the world this week
Regional entrepreneurs transform the extreme climate into an ally to produce edible mushrooms, adaptogens, and home cultivation kits with cutting-edge techniques
With textile waste collection mandated across the EU, questions remain about what to do with all those materials. Latvian scientists explore several interesting solutions, including using waste textiles.
Tetrim Teas, operating through its Tŷ Cynan community growing initiative, is producing what may be Wales’s only truly home-grown ‘brain-boosting’ cuppa – made from Lion’s Mane mushrooms proven to support cognitive function.
Mycopreneur Year in Review
The Mycopreneur Newsletter achieved a 52% Open Rate and a 4.95% Click-Through Rate in 2025, eclipsing newsletter industry benchmarks of 15 - 20 % for Open Rate and coming in at the top echelon for ‘CTR’ at 4.95% according to leading email marketing platform Mailchimp and other available sources. Thanks for your readership, and please let me know what you’d like to see from this publication in 2026 by replying to the email or messaging me. More journalistic pieces? News round ups? Satire? Interviews?
The Mycopreneur Podcast experienced an 807% rise in new listenership on Spotify in 2025, reaching audiences in 77 countries across platforms. We published 43 episodes this year.
The Mycopreneur Instagram page clocked over 4.6 million views on content published during the calendar year, with another 490,000 views on TikTok to put the platform over the 5 million organic view mark on social media for 2025.
Mycopreneur was featured in international press throughout the year ranging from The Los Angeles Times to High Times to many other platforms. I also wrote for a number of platforms including High Times, Double Blind Magazine, The MAPS Bulletin, Shroomski Magazine, Talking Drugs, Hearst’s GreenState, Beard Bros, Reality Sandwich, and a number of others.
We also participated in a ton of live events, from SXSW in Austin in March to Psychedelic Science in Denver in June, Telluride Mushroom Festival in August, Yuy Fest and Moni Fest in Mexico in July and September, The Alps Psychedelic Research Conference in Switzerland in October, Global Psychedelic Week in November, African Rising Mushroom Festival in Uganda in November and definitely some more I’m leaving out.
Perhaps most interesting of all, we hosted over 30 Mycopreneur Incubators this year and a number of these were co-hosted by different mycopreneurs and researchers from around the world; stay tuned here for 2026 Incubators as they start to come online.
It’s about 4:20 here in Tunisia where I am for New Years, so probably time to wrap up this newsletter and get on with the evening festivities. Thanks for being a part of Mycopreneur’s 2025 and let’s hit the ground running in 2026.
Dennis