HVAC expertise fuels smart farming success for Taizhou manufacturer

A 5G-enabled intelligent growing container for edible mushrooms developed by Macintyre. [Photo/Taizhou Daily]

A heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) manufacturer in Jingjiang has created a new growth engine by applying its climate-control expertise to modern agriculture, with its smart mushroom cultivation units seeing strong demand across southwest China.

Macintyre has developed a 5G-enabled intelligent growing container for edible mushrooms, combining automated environmental control with remote digital management. The product has become particularly popular in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, where mushroom farming is a major industry. The company has received orders for more than 100 units, helping drive first-half sales revenue to 30 million yuan ($4.42 million), an increase of more than 50 percent year-on-year.

The company's move into agricultural technology comes as China's HVAC industry adapts to changing market conditions. With demand from the property sector slowing in recent years, Macintyre began exploring how its decades of experience in climate control, ventilation and energy-efficient engineering could be applied to agricultural production.

Unlike conventional cultivation methods, the smart growing containers enable year-round production regardless of weather or seasonal conditions. Company testing shows that the technology can increase mushroom production success rates by around 50 percent, raise yields by 30 to 40 percent and reduce labor requirements by as much as 80 percent.

Building on that momentum, Mcintyre has expanded its agricultural portfolio beyond mushroom cultivation to include grain storage air-conditioning systems, cold-storage facilities for fresh produce, greenhouse environmental control equipment and heat-pump drying systems.