The Group boasts strong technological capabilities and is a leader in variety research and development. The company currently employs over 200 sericulture breeding professionals, including more than 30 with senior professional titles and more than 50 with intermediate professional titles. In 2013, the Group invested RMB 25 million to establish a new mulberry silkworm variety propagation base in the mountainous region in the southwest of Qingzhou City, located in the heart of the Yimeng Mountains and characterized by an excellent environment. The base maintains long-term technical advisory relationships with breeding experts from research institutions such as the Sericultural Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Shandong Agricultural University, while also selecting and assigning more than 20 specialized sericulture technicians from within the Group to form a dedicated new-variety breeding team focused on the research and development of innovative mulberry silkworm varieties. This new-variety propagation base has been designated as a national original seed production base under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, a national conservation unit for silkworm genetic resources, a national laboratory for the identification of mulberry silkworm varieties, and a comprehensive experimental station for the Shandong Provincial Modern Agricultural Sericulture Industry Technology System.
The Group’s current main silkworm varieties include: Jingsong × Haoyue, Liangguang No. 2, the Xiongcan series (Qiuhua × Ping 30, Luqing × Huayang, Yunqiu × Qingping), the Huakang series (Huakang No. 2, Huakang No. 3, Huakang No. 4), the Jinxiu series (Jinxiu No. 1, Jinxiu No. 2), the artificial-feed series (Guangyou No. 1, Guangyou No. 2, Guangyou No. 3, Guangyou No. 4), as well as ultra-fine-fiber, three-stage silkworm varieties. Notably, the company’s newly bred Luqing No. 1—specifically for rearing male silkworms—was approved by the National Committee on Animal and Poultry Genetic Resources in December 2020, and the company currently maintains more than 130 pairs of genetic breeding resources for mulberry silkworm varieties.
The group company focuses on mechanized R&D and innovation in silkworm seed production: in 2015, Guangtong Silkworm Seed Group, in cooperation with research institutes and universities, developed an intelligent silkworm pupa sexing machine, achieving automation of the silkworm pupa sexing operation and solving a technical problem that had constrained the development of the global silkworm seed production industry; in 2016, it developed a series of practical production mechanical devices such as automatic acid-immersion for silkworm seeds, automatic disinfection of silkworm seeds, automatic egg selection for silkworm seeds, boxing, labeling, and automatic counting survey software for silkworm seeds; in 2018 it developed a new generation cocoons-paring machine and established a domestic cocoons-paring and sexing production line, improving production efficiency, reducing production costs, and promoting sustained and stable development of silkworm seed production.
Guangtong Silkworm Seed Group has successively won multiple awards including the “Shennong China Agricultural Science and Technology Award” from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the First Prize of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province, the Second Prize of Science and Technology of Shandong Province, and the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It holds more than ten industry patents for equipment such as cocoon-silk stripping devices, cocoon cutting devices, silkworm pupa wind-sorting machines, and inspection equipment, and has been rated by the China Silk Association as a “National Innovative Enterprise in the Cocoon and Silk Industry.”
In recent years, Guangtong Group has formed a professional research team dedicated to breakthroughs in artificial feed silkworm variety breeding, feed formulas, equipment development, and rearing technology, empowering the traditional silkworm seed industry upgrade with new productive forces from artificial feed rearing. In 2024, it is building an industrialized artificial-feed silkworm rearing base in Guizhou Province, equipped with intelligent feeding systems, automated temperature-control equipment and other facilities, fully promoting the application process of full-age seed cocoon production with artificial feed, striving to overcome the R&D difficulties of automation equipment for silkworm seed production processes, and making all-out efforts to fundamentally transform Guangtong’s silkworm seed production and operation methods, relentlessly working for the high-quality development of the silk industry!