Biological manufacturing is a strategic and forward-looking industrial field that has been prioritized in China's "15th Five-Year Plan". The 2026 Central Document No. 1 explicitly stated the need to "accelerate key technological innovation in agricultural biological manufacturing". From April 22 to 25, 2026, the National Agricultural Science and Technology Strategy Research Institute of China Agricultural University organized a group of experts to visit and investigate over ten institutions in the Greater Bay Area. On April 25, the "Baiwang Forum" (the 3rd session) with the theme of "Agricultural Biological Manufacturing" was held in Shenzhen. This forum was supported by the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the National Natural Science Foundation of China's project "Research on the Development Strategy of Modern Agriculture Facing 2045". Eighteen experts from universities such as China Agricultural University, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Southwest University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, and Guizhou University, as well as research institutions including the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Agricultural Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Feed Research Institute, and Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and enterprises such as Guangzhou M-En Biotechnology and Beijing Qingdayuan Nong, conducted in-depth discussions on the current status of technological innovation and industrial application, future development vision, technological demands, and policy demands in the fields of agricultural synthetic biology, biological materials and bioenergy, biological feed, biological fertilizers, and biological agro-veterinary drugs. Based on this, and in combination with the actual development of the industry and national strategic demands, this report was further studied and formed.
I. Deeply Understanding the Strategic Significance of Developing the Agricultural Biological Manufacturing Industry
Biological manufacturing generally refers to a new manufacturing paradigm that uses renewable biomass as raw materials and advanced biotechnology as the core means for material transformation and product production. It has the significant characteristics of renewable raw materials, green processes, and high-performance products, and has become a focal area of global emerging industry competition and an important means to cultivate new quality productivity. Agricultural biomanufacturing is a strategic field that is crucial to food security, the "dual carbon" goals, the construction of an agricultural power, and international competition. It is currently triggering a new round of agricultural industrial revolution worldwide. (1) Developing agricultural biomanufacturing is a major strategic choice for accelerating the construction of a modern agricultural industry. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to coordinate the development of "four types of agriculture" and build agriculture into a modern large-scale industry. The agricultural biomanufacturing industry can fundamentally expand the boundaries of agricultural production, achieve "obtaining protein and energy from microorganisms", and build a "new type of factory agriculture" that does not mainly rely on traditional farmland. It is a key engine for promoting agricultural transformation and upgrading and increasing industrial added value. According to relevant statistics, the total scale of the national biomanufacturing industry will exceed 1.1 trillion yuan in 2025, among which the market size of the agricultural biomanufacturing sector will exceed 500 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 50% of the national biomanufacturing industry. Compared with other fields, agriculture has the richest biomass raw material resources such as straw. China's annual agricultural waste resource volume exceeds 3.5 billion tons, providing a huge resource foundation for large-scale industrialized biomanufacturing. At the same time, agriculture is also the field with the broadest application scenarios for various green biological products, and the industrial expansion space is huge. Against the backdrop of the increasingly severe global food security situation, agricultural biomanufacturing, with its explosive growth potential in sub-sectors such as new feed protein, biofertilizers, biopesticides, and functional food raw materials, is becoming the largest and most influential field in the country's overall biomanufacturing strategy. Developing agricultural biomanufacturing is a key path and important direction for expanding the boundaries of the agricultural industry, increasing agricultural added value, and developing new agricultural productivity. (2) Developing agricultural biomanufacturing is one of the most effective ways to implement the country's "dual carbon" strategic goals. Agriculture has the dual attributes of carbon source and carbon sink. Agricultural biomanufacturing regards agricultural biomass resources such as straw, livestock and poultry manure, and tail vegetables, which are considered waste or even pollutants, as valuable "carbon resources", and produces high-value products (such as protein, materials, etc.) through biotransformation technology, turning "carbon burden" into "carbon assets", directly contributing to the circular economy and negative carbon manufacturing. It is the most effective implementation path for achieving the "dual carbon" goals. According to estimates, replacing traditional chemical fertilizers with biofertilizers can reduce agricultural production carbon emissions by 30% to 45%, and replacing chemical pesticides with biopesticides can reduce comprehensive carbon emissions by more than 25%. Each ton of agricultural and forestry biomass can fix 0.8 to 1.2 tons of carbon through biomanufacturing resource utilization. If all 3.5 billion tons of agricultural and forestry waste in the country are biologically transformed, it can increase carbon sinks by more than 2 billion tons. Compared with traditional petrochemical routes, bio-based products can achieve an average of 50% to 70% energy conservation and emission reduction. If a 30% substitution rate is achieved in the chemical and material fields by 2030, it can cumulatively reduce more than 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Developing the agricultural biomanufacturing industry helps to deeply integrate the agricultural industry with the "dual carbon" goals and is a key way to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture and assist in the implementation of the "dual carbon" goals. (3) Developing agricultural biomanufacturing is a key measure to seize the high ground of the future global agricultural industry. From the perspective of global industrial transformation trends, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating. Biomanufacturing, as a strategic technology leading future industrial development, has become a core track in the global industrial layout. According to statistics from the McKinsey Institute, global biomanufacturing products can cover 70% of chemical manufacturing products. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that the proportion of biomanufacturing in the bioeconomy will reach 39% by 2030. Boston Consulting Group predicts that by the end of the 21st century, biomanufacturing will be applied to one-third of global manufacturing and is expected to create an economic value of 30 trillion US dollars. The research and industrial application of agricultural biomanufacturing technology is one of the core focuses of global future industrial competition. At present, the United States, the European Union and other countries are accelerating the implementation of plans such as "Life Foundries", "Cell Factories" and "Enzyme Design", and are striving to build an independent and controllable full industrial chain system. Against this backdrop, accelerating the layout of agricultural biomanufacturing is directly related to the international competitiveness of China's key industries such as energy, materials, feed and food, and is even more related to China's competitive position and strategic initiative in the future global agricultural bioeconomy landscape.
II. Objectively Assess the Development Trend of China's Agricultural Biomanufacturing Industry
From the existing development foundation of China's agricultural biomanufacturing industry, it can be seen that, on the whole, China's agricultural biomanufacturing industry is still in the initial stage of transitioning from technological exploration to industrial application, and the overall development trend is good, mainly presenting "four major trends".
(1) Technological research and development is in full swing. China's agricultural biomanufacturing technology is in a period of multiple breakthroughs and partial leadership. Universities, research institutes and enterprises have carried out a series of basic research and technological breakthroughs around core directions such as agricultural biomass conversion, key enzyme preparations, core chassis organism breeding, biobased product development, and green preparation of agrochemicals. Innovative progress has been made in multiple fields, and some disruptive original technological achievements have been obtained. For instance, the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a "cellulose to starch" technology based on multi-enzyme molecular machines, which can efficiently convert non-grain biomass such as straw into starch (the theoretical yield can reach 100%), and its derivative applications have broken Japan's monopoly on chiral drug chromatographic separation media. Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have used synthetic biology to construct yeast cell factories, achieving microbial synthesis of over 40 high-value plant natural products such as glabridin and glycyrrhizic acid.
(2) The participation of enterprises has significantly increased. Enterprises are becoming an important force in promoting the industrialization of agricultural biomanufacturing. Industry leaders are continuously increasing their investment in research and development and industrial layout, and the model of cooperation among industry, academia and research is constantly innovating. The role of enterprises as the main body of technology transfer and industrial development is gradually becoming prominent. A number of backbone enterprises with annual revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan and dozens of national-level "little giant" enterprises have been cultivated. For example, Zhongke Kangyuan has adopted a straw biological synthesis feed protein technology and built a 200,000-ton agricultural straw biological conversion protein feed production line. The product can replace traditional feed grains such as soybean meal. Longdu Tianren has adopted a two-step method to synthesize straw-based polylactic acid technology and built a 10,000-ton agricultural biomass preparation of biobased degradable materials industrial device, achieving large-scale conversion of agricultural waste into high-end biobased materials. The capital market is also highly concerned, and emerging innovative enterprises are constantly emerging. As of the beginning of 2025, there are more than 50 listed companies related to agricultural biomanufacturing in the A-share market, with a considerable total market value, demonstrating the confidence and participation of capital in this field.
(3) The industrial foundation is gradually expanding. China's agricultural biomanufacturing has formed a significant scale advantage and an expanding industrial foundation. Application scenarios are continuously expanding, product categories are constantly enriching, covering terminal fields such as agricultural inputs, food, materials and energy. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the scale of China's biomanufacturing industry reached 1.1 trillion yuan, and the output of biomanufacturing products accounted for more than 70% of the global total. In the field of bulk products, China's total output of feed amino acids in 2025 will reach 5.922 million tons, accounting for 73% of the global total; vitamin production capacity accounts for about 80% of the global total. Industrial application scenarios have rapidly expanded from traditional feed additives and amino acids to multiple high-growth tracks such as biopesticides (such as spinosad, glufosinate-ammonium), biobased materials (such as PHA, PEF), alternative proteins (one-carbon bacteria protein, insect protein), and plant insulin (trehalose-6-phosphate), as well as biostimulants (chitosan).
(4) Cross-domain integration is accelerating. The cross-integration of multiple disciplines such as agricultural biotechnology, agricultural engineering, materials science, equipment manufacturing, and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly evident, and cross-field and cross-subject collaborative innovation is continuously increasing. In terms of technological paths, the integration of "AI + biotechnology + intelligent manufacturing" has become the mainstream. For instance, AI is used to design antimicrobial peptides and drive precise fermentation; the in vitro biotransformation (ivBT) platform integrates enzyme engineering, chemical engineering, and automatic control. In terms of industrial ecology, an organized research model of "raw materials - technology - application" has emerged. For example, around the full-component biorefining of crop straw, a "cluster-style" full industrial chain innovation consortium has been formed, involving upstream agricultural planting cooperatives and straw collection and storage entities, midstream research institutes/bio-manufacturing leading enterprises, and downstream feed, food packaging, and new material enterprises. This cross-integration is giving rise to new industrial forms and innovation paradigms.
III. Accurate Analysis of the Weaknesses and Bottlenecks of China's Agricultural Biomanufacturing Industry
Overall, China's agricultural biomanufacturing industry is at a critical juncture where strategic opportunities and real challenges coexist. Under the dual impetus of technological innovation and policy drive, the next decade will witness an explosive growth period. Currently, China's agricultural biomanufacturing industry needs to proceed steadily and not overestimate its development level. Compared with the requirements for high-quality industrial development, China's agricultural biomanufacturing industry still has four prominent weaknesses and bottlenecks. (1) A systematic research layout has not yet been formed. There are problems such as "working independently, scattered investment, and overlapping content" in industry research and development. A unified, coordinated, and forward-looking systematic research layout for the agricultural biomanufacturing industry at the national level has not yet been established, resulting in the inability to effectively aggregate innovation resources. There are still shortcomings in the underlying technologies such as gene editing, core databases, and de novo enzyme design, and the ability for original innovation and breakthroughs in underlying technologies is insufficient. (2) The integration path between science and technology and industry is not smooth. A complete transformation system from breakthrough technology to engineering and industrialization has not yet been established. The collaboration among industry, academia, and research is disconnected. Many excellent achievements remain at the stage of papers and patents. For example, laboratory enzyme research takes ideal conditions as an important evaluation indicator, which is far from the catalytic ability under real substrate conditions in industrial applications. Currently, the success rate of laboratory strain engineering amplification is less than 10%, and long-term industrial production is prone to further performance decline. The compatibility between technology and industry is insufficient. (3) The industrial development layout is unclear. The overall industry presents a state of "small and scattered, numerous and diverse", lacking a clear priority order for industrial development and hierarchical and classified guidance. The structure of grain and non-grain raw materials is not well coordinated, and the economic bottlenecks of different product and raw material matching technologies have not been fully considered. China's feed consumption of grain accounts for more than 50% of the total grain consumption, while industrial consumption is only 13%. The high-value utilization rate of non-grain raw materials is low, and the potential of the feed path of non-grain raw materials has not been fully explored. The layout of regions and entities is highly homogeneous, and a differentiated and collaborative industrial development pattern has not been formed. (4) The supporting policy support system is not perfect. The product certification and market access rules for agricultural bioproducts are not complete. There are gaps in green subsidies and financial support policies for the industry. Social awareness is insufficient, and the promotion of application scenarios is difficult. Supporting mechanisms such as international cooperation and risk management have not been established, which restricts the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.
IV. Several Suggestions for Accelerating the Development of China's Agricultural Biomanufacturing Industry
(1) Research and determine the scientific classification of the agricultural biomanufacturing industry. Currently, the industry has not yet formed a unified and recognized classification and definition standard for agricultural bioproducts, and the boundaries of the field are ambiguous, directly affecting industrial planning, policy formulation, and industry management. It is necessary to focus on researching classification dimensions and core areas. From the perspective of the product formation path dimension, agricultural biomanufacturing includes "three routes": agricultural biological resources, after being processed by biomanufacturing technology and industrial processing, form a new system of biological fertilizers, biological pesticides, feed, etc., which ultimately flow back to agriculture and serve agricultural production. The product system of agricultural biomass resources transformed into terminal products such as food and raw materials through biomanufacturing and applied in industrial sectors; the product system of services such as medicine and cosmetics formed based on agricultural biological resources through biotechnology. From the perspective of industrial categories and product types, the agricultural biomanufacturing industry should mainly include: new feed sources for ruminants and non-ruminants, bio-based chemicals and bio-based materials, core chassis cells and enzyme preparations, bioenergy, biopesticides, biofertilizers, etc. On the other hand, we believe that agricultural biobreeding is another dimension of the broad biomanufacturing category, but its technical path is essentially different from the previous biomanufacturing process based on biology and industrialization, and should be classified in the field of biobreeding. In specific practice, further in-depth research is needed to provide scientific classification standards and basis for the development of the industry.
(2) Focus on building a systematic innovation system for the national agricultural biomanufacturing industry. Leverage the advantages of the new national system, align with the national "15th Five-Year Plan" for biomanufacturing development, and suggest that the state establish a major science and technology project for "agricultural biomanufacturing", focusing on providing long-term and stable support for "bottleneck" links such as underlying technologies for agricultural biomass conversion, key enzyme preparations, core strains, engineering equipment, and utilization of non-grain raw materials. Explore new technologies for replacing grain-based feed with straw feed and replacing imported soybeans with straw amino acids, release a huge amount of grain raw materials to support the large-scale development of agricultural biomanufacturing, promote the deep integration of biotechnology and artificial intelligence, and build an independent and controllable core technology system. The state should take the lead in integrating the forces of industry, academia, and research, coordinate research directions, avoid duplicate investment, and form a full-chain innovation layout covering basic research, applied research, and technology transfer.
(3) Accelerate the establishment of an agricultural biotechnology manufacturing industry system led by enterprises. The essence of the development of agricultural biotechnology manufacturing is a systematic transformation of the agricultural industry, and it is necessary to leverage the decisive role of the market and the enterprise-led mechanism. It is suggested to introduce special policies to strengthen the leading role of leading enterprises in innovation, focus on cultivating several agricultural biotechnology manufacturing leading enterprises with an industrial scale of over 10 billion yuan, support the establishment of agricultural biotechnology manufacturing innovation consortia, and break through the complete chain from technological research and development to engineering and industrialization. Improve the collaborative transformation mechanism of industry-university-research, shift from "post-transformation of achievements" to "collaboration before innovation", build a number of general-purpose pilot-scale platforms, provide a full-chain service, and break through the bottleneck of technology transfer. Build a coordinated development pattern of large, medium and small enterprises, solve the problem of small and scattered industries and multiple and miscellaneous issues.
(4) Coordinate the planning of the industrial layout for the coordinated development of agricultural biotechnology manufacturing at different levels and in different categories. Develop a national special plan for the development of agricultural biotechnology manufacturing, sort out and form a classification directory of agricultural biotechnology manufacturing industries, clarify the development goals, paths and key tasks for the next 10 years, determine the priority sequence of the development of various sub-sectors, and guide resources to strategic and leading industries. Scientifically construct a hierarchical and categorized industrial system, prioritize the layout of pilot and trial demonstration zones in regions with concentrated innovation resources, guide differentiated layout in each region, and form a national coordinated and distinctive development pattern. Build national agricultural biotechnology manufacturing industrial parks and industrial technology innovation centers, construct a cluster of industries integrating research and development, pilot-scale, industrialization and application scenarios services, and enhance the level of industrial intensive development.
(5) Reform and improve the comprehensive policy guarantees for agricultural biotechnology manufacturing. Improve the certification and access system for agricultural biotechnology products and the industry supervision system, simplify the market access process. Innovate green subsidies and financial support policies, extend subsidies to the research and application stages, establish industry-specific funds to broaden the supply channels of funds. Improve the international cooperation and risk management mechanism, promote technology exchanges and the introduction of achievements. Establish a low-carbon evaluation system for biobased products and promote its inclusion in the carbon trading market. Strengthen interdisciplinary subject settings and talent cultivation. Increase public science and technology publicity to enhance social awareness, expand application scenarios. Strengthen the scientific ethics system and legal construction for agricultural biotechnology manufacturing.
Report summary author:
Gao Wangbing, Director and Professor of the National Agricultural Science and Technology Strategy Institute of China Agricultural University,
Sun Yongming, Deputy Director and Researcher of the Guangzhou Energy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Liu Yingjie, Executive Vice President and Professor of the Shenzhen Research Institute of China University of Oceanography,
Zhang Yiheng, Professor of the Future Agriculture Research Institute of Shenzhen University of Science and Technology,
Yang Zhenbiao, Researcher of the Tianjin Industrial Biotechnology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Wang Junhui, Dean and Chair Professor of the Future Agriculture Research Institute of Shenzhen University of Science and Technology,
Yang Fuyu, Vice President and Researcher of the National Agricultural Science and Technology Strategy Institute of China Agricultural University,
Chen Yuanquan, Dean and Professor of the National Agricultural Science and Technology Strategy Institute of China Agricultural University,
Liu Junli, Dean and Professor of the National Agricultural Science and Technology Strategy Institute of China Agricultural University,
Xue Min, Deputy Director and Researcher of the Forest Chemical Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Zou Xiang, Professor of Southwest University, Guo Dawei, Professor of Nanjing Agricultural University,
Zhang Libo, Professor of Nanjing Agricultural University, Yang Fuyu, Professor of Guizhou University
