Pinduoduo lets young people build strawberry factories, and after 170 days the "answer" is ripe

What happened: Pinduoduo's fifth Duoduo Agricultural Research competition challenged four finalist teams to design and build a 50 square meter strawberry plant factory from scratch, using domestic technology and growing domestic strawberry varieties for six months. Key numbers: Factories measured 10m x 5m x 4m. Why it matters: The contest judged results by fruit quality, factory design, cost and energy use rather than business plans, with judges questioning disease control, profitability scale and whether fruit quality could support price premiums.

Pinduoduo's fifth Duoduo Agricultural Research competition challenged four finalist teams to design and build a 50 square meter strawberry plant factory from scratch, using domestic technology and growing domestic strawberry varieties for six months.

The contest judged results by fruit quality, factory design, cost and energy use rather than business plans, with judges questioning disease control, profitability scale and whether fruit quality could support price premiums.