What began as a humble garage start-up in West Auckland is now one of New Zealand’s most ambitious and high-tech dual-market export operations – with plans for a massive NZ$115 million expansion in China that could significantly boost the country’s presence in global biotech exports.
Alpha Group, a vertically integrated nutraceutical company headquartered in Manukau, has announced the construction of a 60,000-square-metre biotech manufacturing facility in Ningde, China. The facility will be a flagship hub for advanced fermentation research, testing, treatment, and production, supporting Alpha’s cross-border operations that combine New Zealand science with Chinese scale.
“This facility unlocks exponential growth potential for New Zealand’s fermentation sector,” says Mike Arand, Alpha Group’s Senior Business Advisor.
“By integrating R&D and processing in one hub close to our largest export market, we can boost output, reduce lead times and increase demand for Kiwi-derived ingredients.”
Alpha Group was founded in 1998 by Professor Yihuai Gao, a globally recognised expert in medicinal fungi and an honorary fellow at Massey University’s Riddet Institute. Under his leadership, the company has invested more than NZ$830 million to build a global infrastructure footprint that spans over 119 hectares.
Arand says the new facility is the physical realisation of Alpha’s long-term dual-market strategy.
“It’s about creating a transnational innovation ecosystem where New Zealand science drives offshore commercial outcomes, which then feed back into local jobs, R&D and raw material demand,” he explains.
“This development bridges lab-to-market pathways, turning New Zealand-led research into commercial outcomes that drive export growth and reinvestment into local R&D.”
At the heart of Alpha Group’s success is its patented fermentation method for growing Ganoderma Lingzhi mycelium, a medicinal mushroom used for over 2,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine. Previously dependent on a six-month natural growth cycle, Ganoderma Lingzhi now flourishes in just 10 days under Alpha’s controlled fermentation process.
“Ganoderma Lingzhi is one of the most revered mushrooms in traditional Chinese medicine, used for thousands of years to support immunity, cardiovascular function and overall wellbeing. But growing it traditionally is slow, unpredictable and difficult to scale,” says Professor Gao.
“Our fermentation method not only replicates the active compounds found in the wild species, but it does so in days instead of months under precise conditions that ensure consistency, purity and potency.”
The breakthrough, developed in collaboration with Callaghan Innovation and Massey University and approved by New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Authority, has positioned Alpha at the forefront of global functional food and nutraceutical technology.
Professor Yihuai Gao.
“Fermentation is one of the most exciting global food technologies today,” says Professor Gao.
“It offers us a way to produce clean, bioactive-rich compounds from fungi and plants in a controlled environment free from soil, weather or climate volatility, or without requiring large tracts of land or disrupting native ecosystems.
“What we have built with Lingzhi is a platform that can be adapted to other medicinal fungi, plants and marine compounds,” he says.
“Now not only can we unlock new export streams from organisms that are difficult or impossible to cultivate here, we can dramatically accelerate research into other plants and fungi that support human health. That opens the door to a whole new category of science-led exports for New Zealand.”
When completed, the new Ningde facility is projected to generate more than NZ$225 million in annual revenue. It marks a new chapter for Alpha Group—and for New Zealand’s growing biotech export economy.
