Otog Banner's standardized spirulina industrial park features modern cultivation greenhouses. [Photo/Otog Integrated Media Center]

Just a fraction of the width of a human hair, spirulina is a microscopic blue-green organism that has grown into a major industry in Otog Banner, Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The banner now hosts the world's largest spirulina production base, with annual output of about 5,200 metric tons of spirulina powder, accounting for more than half of China's total and around 40 percent of global production. Its products range from spirulina powder and tablets to phycocyanin, oral supplements, functional shakes, and skincare products.

The industry took root in 1996, when a research team led by Qiao Chen of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University discovered a new strain of Arthrospira platensis in an alkaline lake in Ordos. After five years of research, the strain was cultivated commercially in 2001, laying the foundation for local production.

Otog's alkaline lakes, with a natural pH of 9 to 10, more than 3,000 hours of annual sunshine, and a location around 39 degrees north latitude, offer favorable conditions for spirulina cultivation.

The first spirulina farm in the banner was established in 2003. To promote standardized and integrated development, Otog built a modern spirulina industrial park in 2009, bringing cultivation, processing, research, and sales under one roof.

The industry is now expanding beyond cultivation into biotechnology. In 2023, Otog and Zhejiang University established a joint biomedical research center. Research teams have secured or applied for 11 Chinese invention patents and one Japanese patent, while a spirulina-derived exosome product has entered clinical trials.