How a Small County Transformed into the "World's Vegetable Basket": An Investigation from Anqiu, Weifang, Shandong Province
"Food is the first necessity of the people." In the major agricultural province of Shandong, Anqiu City in Weifang exports over 600,000 tons of vegetables annually, earning it the reputation of the "World's Vegetable Basket." Despite having no direct access to major rivers or the sea, Anqiu has, through years of unremitting cultivation, carved out a path for high-quality agricultural development characterized by "ecology first, brand empowerment, and international integration," relying on a full-process quality control system, innovative applications of ecological technology, and precise policy support.
Agriculture export volume in this county has led Shandong for 16 consecutive years; every eight minutes, a standard shipping container departs for overseas markets. As "China’s number one county for vegetable exports," Anqiu sends products to over 80 countries and regions, with its annual vegetable export volume accounting for nearly one-seventh of Shandong’s total. Specifically, its actual exports of big ginger, round onions, and long scallions each account for more than 80% of the national total.
What is the secret that allows this small, land-locked county to successfully "go global" with its agricultural produce, and even make "Anqiu Produce" a synonym for quality in the international market?
Consolidating the Natural Foundation of Agricultural Products
In the early morning in Liushanyu Village, Huiqu Town, Anqiu, mist lingers among the cascading volcanic terraces. Villager Cao Hongxiang scoops up a handful of clear spring water: "Taste it, it's sweet! This flows right out of the ancient volcanic rock of Mount Liu." He points toward the silhouettes of the dormant volcanoes in the distance, his face full of pride. Squatting to look closer, a reporter observes the soil—loose and porous, it crumbles with a gentle pinch, seemingly teeming with vitality. Cao Hongxiang grabs a handful of earth and says, "Experts say there is a 50-meter-thick layer of volcanic ash beneath us, containing over 30 trace elements—it’s a natural fertilizer storehouse! Combined with the abundant sunlight, the millet grows slowly and accumulates plenty of nutrients. That's why the 'rice oil' [1] it produces is so fragrant and thick." Behind him, heavy ears of millet hang low, nearing harvest. Known by locals as "Golden Postpartum Rice," this Huiqu volcanic millet can sell for 20 yuan per jin (500g), making it a favorite in high-end markets.
Leaving the volcanic terraces, a drive leads to the Huihai Ecological Farm’s sand-textured tomato base in Linghe Subdistrict. Inside modern greenhouses, clusters of tomatoes hang like rubies from the vines. Picking a ripe fruit and snapping it open reveals a shimmering, granular "sand-texture" (shārǎng) interior with a sweet flavor. The farm manager points to the loose soil underfoot with a smile: "The secret lies in this breathable sandy soil. Combined with the distinct temperature difference between day and night, sugars accumulate in the flesh like gathering pearls." He then turns toward a temperature and humidity logger hanging in the greenhouse. "Nowadays, we focus on scientific cultivation and husbandry; data is monitored in real-time, and temperature and humidity can be precisely regulated. Quality becomes more stable every year."
As he speaks, the sound of a truck starting comes from outside—another batch of orders is about to be sent to Beijing. "We have no worries about sales. During peak season, these fruits can sell for up to 28 yuan per jin. They are often in short supply!" the manager says.
The source of this "innate quality" is rooted in Anqiu’s unique natural endowment. Located in the 36°N golden agricultural belt, the area receives over 2,400 hours of sunlight annually. Forty-eight rivers nourish the land like veins, collectively shaping a unique landscape of selenium-rich soil, volcanic rock soil, and sprawling plains and hills, providing an irreplaceable stage for a diverse array of crops.
This magical land has further written a "Legend of the Three Pungents" [2] spanning five centuries. During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, ancestors along the Wen River sowed the seeds of big ginger. Through 500 years of meticulous selection and cultivation, it has become today’s National Geographical Indication product, known for being "large-bulbed with few fibers, pungent yet fragrant." Currently, the planting area for Anqiu big ginger remains stable at 140,000 mu (approx. 9,333 hectares), with an annual output exceeding 700,000 tons, accounting for 80% of the national export share.
The vigorous vitality of the ginger industry is visible everywhere in Anqiu’s fields and workshops. At the "Red Bud" ginger cultivation base in Shijiazhuang Village, Linghe Subdistrict, "ginger expert" Wu Zhongbo is leading farmers in harvesting fresh ginger bulbs: "Red Bud ginger yields two harvests a year, with unit prices reaching as high as 40 yuan per jin. Ten mu of land can easily bring an annual income of over one million yuan." Meanwhile, in the workshop of Shandong Xinsuo Food Co., Ltd., also in Linghe, boxes of exquisitely packaged Anqiu ginger are being loaded for shipment to Japan. "For ginger puree alone—just one type of deep-processed product—our annual export volume exceeds 1,000 tons," the company head states. "The international market's recognition of Anqiu big ginger is very high."
Anqiu scallions are equally recognized by the market. Not only is their Vitamin C content high at 100mg per 100g, but their iron content is twice the national standard, making them a premium seasoning and a fine material for dietary therapy. Anqiu garlic, characterized by its "white color, uniform cloves, and juice as thick as honey," along with its related deep-processed products, firmly occupies one-third of the Japanese market share. As early as 1995, the former Ministry of Agriculture awarded Anqiu the title "Hometown of Chinese Ginger and Garlic." Today, this fragrant "Golden Triangle" of ginger, scallions, and garlic is delivering its rich flavors to the world through a modernized industrial chain.
Currently, Anqiu produces over 2 million tons of ecological agricultural products annually. It possesses 122 national-level brands for green and organic agricultural products, including 12 "National Famous, Special, High-quality, and New Agricultural Products" and eight National Geographical Indication products. Anqiu big ginger and Anqiu scallions have even been included in the scope of protected EU Geographical Indication certifications. More than 30 specialty agricultural products, including ginger, scallions, cherries, and Chinese cabbage, are helping people rediscover the "flavors of old" from their memories.
Forging an International Passport
"Vegetable production has a time lag; if you don't receive news six months in advance, the losses will be enormous." Recalling Japan's revision of pesticide residue standards for scallions last year, Jia Guoliang, General Manager of Anqiu Huihai Food Co., Ltd., was deeply moved. This reflects a universal dilemma for Chinese agricultural products "going global"—how can the decentralized operations of thousands of households accurately interface with ever-changing international standards? As competition in the domestic market intensifies, how can one stand out among so many agricultural products?
Relying on the country’s first national-level Research and Review Base for Technical Measures to Trade in Food and Agricultural Products, Anqiu proactively established a professional research and service team for technical trade measures. By searching, translating, and analyzing massive amounts of standard information, they built the nation's first real-time query and comparison platform for international agricultural standards, providing powerful informational support and precise risk warnings for many foreign trade enterprises across the country.
In March 2024, Japan significantly tightened the residue limit standards for common herbicides used in imported scallions. "The sudden adjustment of standards did not disrupt our plans," a local enterprise leader said. "We received the warning and had already made preparations six months before Japan officially released the information."
According to reports, the real-time query and comparison platform for international standards covers more than 1,500 the latest regulations and standards from 56 major trading countries and regions. it provides "one-stop" regulation queries, interpretations, warnings, and response services free of charge to export enterprises nationwide. In 2024 alone, the platform issued warnings and assisted over 600 domestic enterprises in avoiding major trade risks, helping them secure over 200 million yuan in new export orders, serving as an "invisible escort" against international trade barriers.
The core support behind this "escort" is Anqiu’s nationally pioneered "Electronic Safety Code for Edible Agricultural Products + Traceability Code for Protected Eco-certified Products" dual-code certification system. The quality safety code grants a "digital ID" to 130,000 production and operation entities; scanning the code allows for traceability of the entire planting and testing process. The ecological origin code is backed by the authority of the China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC), achieving international mutual recognition.
In the greenhouse of Yaru Family Farm in Shidui Town, orange-colored carrots and round, shiny potatoes look fresh and inviting. Farm owner Wang Yaru holds up a potato labeled with the "dual codes": "Our potatoes sell for 4 yuan per jin, 30% higher than the average price. Consumers can see the information of the whole process just by scanning the code." Similarly, at Linghe Subdistrict’s Huihai Farm, vegetables with the dual codes exported to South Korea command a premium of 40%.
The "dual codes" have become the golden key to opening high-end international markets. With dual-code certification, Huatao Food's sweet potato vermicelli has captured 60% of the South Korean market. Following simultaneous efforts in technological innovation, Changshengyuan Farm adopted "virus-free ginger seeds + systematic plant protection" technology, reducing chemical fertilizer use by 65% and helping its ginger successfully enter the EU market.
By formulating and implementing the nation’s first ecological product evaluation standard, Anqiu has also established quantifiable and verifiable ecological agricultural production specifications. Currently, 14 categories of local agricultural products have passed the ecological origin product protection evaluation, and 300,000 mu of bases have moved away from dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
To further increase the value-added of agricultural products, Anqiu has guided enterprises to focus on deep processing, accelerating the extension into the secondary industry. This has formed a deep-processing system covering fields such as quick-freezing and preservation, biological extraction, and health foods, with over 2,000 types of products. Among them, the Fuchuang Group’s curcumin extraction project consumes 30,000 tons of secondary ginger annually, and COFCO Grain & Oil transforms ecological wheat into high-end baking ingredients.
From pioneering the regionalized management of agricultural product quality and safety to constructing a full-chain digital management system "from soil to table"; from building a "one-stop" technical trade service platform for international standards to taking the lead in implementing dual-code certification—Anqiu has used systemic innovation to push agricultural standards, technology, and products into full alignment with domestic and international markets. This has laid a solid foundation for the transformation from a major agricultural city to a powerhouse of healthy food.
"Open agriculture must persist in the synergistic application of standard-setting, technological empowerment, and brand value-added," said Qiao Risheng, Secretary of the Anqiu Municipal Party Committee. "Currently, we are mobilizing the entire city's resources to promote a strategic transformation, pushing deep into the big health industry [3] and accelerating the leap from primary agricultural products to high-value-added healthy foods."
Ecological Agriculture Accelerates its Roots
In July this year, Anqiu held an observation and exchange conference on the transformation from a major agricultural city to a powerhouse of healthy food, clearly proposing a strategic path of "high-level advancement for transformation": focusing on the goal of "upgrading from mass food safety to ecological and healthy eating," using an ecological foundation to fortify the lifeblood of the healthy food industry.
To break through the bottlenecks of ecological transformation, Anqiu used a "technology + mechanism" dual innovation approach. The "research institute + leading enterprise + farm" industry-university-research standard alliance has formulated 14 technical standards, with the full-chain standard for ecological ginger being exported nationwide.
"We use biochar to improve the soil; it's like giving the ginger field a SPA," said Zhao Yonggang, General Manager of Shandong Fuchuang Industrial Development Co., Ltd., using a metaphor as he held up "Anjiang No. 1" virus-free ginger seedlings at the nation's first industrial seedling center for resistant ginger, co-built with the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. "It can suck away heavy metals and nurture good bacterial colonies. Soil-borne diseases are reduced by 90%, gingerol [4] increases by 30%, and export prices have doubled."
In the organic fertilizer workshop of Goer Farm, the roar of machinery is constant. Workers skillfully operate intelligent equipment, feeding raw materials like crop stalks and fruit tree branches into smart fermentation tanks. After 30 days of precision-controlled fermentation, organic fertilizer rich in trace elements is ready to return to the fields to nourish the land. This organic fertilizer farm, with an annual capacity of 4,000 tons, is injecting new momentum into the development of ecological agriculture in Huiqu Town through a "waste-to-treasure" ecological circulation model. "We explore new paths for agricultural development based on reality. By using scientific ratios and 'static aeration fermentation' technology to convert high-quality organic fertilizer, we increase crop yields by 12% to 15%, simultaneously achieving a triple breakthrough in 'pollution control, quality improvement, and yield increase,'" said Liu Jingang, head of Goer Farm.
While encouraging farms to pursue independent innovation and upgrades, Anqiu addressed the pain points of high costs and unstable quality of organic fertilizers by innovating a "government coordination, state-owned enterprise (SOE) operation" mechanism. A professional company was formed to use big data for precise ratios, supplying customized organic fertilizer at cost price.
At Menghe Ecological Farm in Jingzhi Town, a compost turner is mixing chicken manure and stalks for fermentation. "In the past, disposing of this waste cost over 100,000 yuan a year; now, turning waste into treasure has made it 'black gold' instead!" farm owner Meng Qingjun said, picking up a handful of dark organic fertilizer. "The '1+14+N' [5] city-wide organic fertilizer promotion mechanism created by the government allows us to get customized fertilizer at cost price, with costs dropping from 1,000 yuan to 200 yuan per ton." This initiative has driven the conversion of 92% of livestock and poultry manure and 95% of stalks in Anqiu into high-quality organic fertilizer, with soil organic matter content increasing by 0.8 percentage points over three years.
Providing the impetus for ecological agriculture to take root are also tangible policy dividends. The "Ten Measures to Support the Development of Ecological Farms and Facility Agriculture" were like a "timely rain" [6] for farmers: new greenhouses receive a maximum subsidy of 50,000 yuan per mu; operating entities enjoy loan interest subsidies of up to 2 million yuan; and model farms are rewarded with 50,000 to 100,000 yuan. "This 'hard cash' support has greatly incentivized farmers' enthusiasm. City-wide ecological agriculture is flourishing, truly reaching the hearts of the farmers," said Sun Hailong, Director of the Anqiu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Currently, 1,397 local farms have completed ecological transformation, covering 300,000 mu of land.
Furthermore, a cluster of healthy food enterprises is rising strongly, reshaping Anqiu’s industrial DNA. Sourcever's bamboo shoots and chestnuts rank first in sales in Japan; its garlic and ginger prepared products account for one-third and one-fourth of the Japanese market share, respectively. Lufeng Group's products are sold to more than 20 countries and regions, including Japan and the European Union...
These achievements are the result of Anqiu’s profound accumulation and sudden explosion [7] of development within its export-oriented industrial clusters. As one of Shandong’s first provincial-level export industrial clusters for agricultural products, its share of the international market is remarkable. Among the city’s more than 400 processing enterprises, over 190 export-oriented firms have constructed a supply chain network covering more than 80 countries and regions, transforming "Anqiu Standards" into global competitiveness.
"While continuously expanding our opening up to the outside world, we must also pursue the path of dual circulation development, ensuring that high-quality ecological agricultural products can both 'go out' and sell well," Qiao Risheng pointed out. To support the reform of domestic and foreign trade integration for enterprises, Anqiu has implemented the "one standard, one production line" approach, producing goods of identical quality for both export and domestic sales and providing technical support for domestic products. The city guides enterprises to focus on their core business—on one hand expanding new export channels, and on the other, deeply tapping into domestic potential—achieving a "double harvest" through the precise alignment of domestic and foreign trade.
At a corporate matchmaking conference organized by Anqiu, Lu Feng Group learned that the Japanese-capitalized 7-Eleven convenience stores were seeking domestic chicken suppliers. "We possess extensive experience in exporting to Japan, and by aligning our high-standard quality systems and products, we quickly secured the order," said Liu Yongfa, the group’s deputy general manager. Subsequently, targeting domestic demand, they continued to research and develop new products and optimize their supply chain. They successively obtained access qualifications for multiple convenience store chains and created "hit" products such as charcoal-grilled chicken meatball skewers; this single item alone has achieved sales exceeding 500 million units. From January to June of this year, Lu Feng Group’s main business income reached 390 million yuan, with products now covering over 30,000 convenience stores nationwide.
Successful breakthroughs in high-end international markets have provided strong support for rural revitalization. With the landing of projects from several Fortune Global 500 companies, including CP Group (Zhengda) Eggs and COFCO Grains and Cereals, the development of Anqiu’s 400,000-mu [8] vegetable industrial belt has been directly stimulated. This has linked over 4,000 cooperatives and family farms, leading more than 60,000 smallholder farmers to share in the dividends of international market share. This "base + processing + export" full-industrial-chain model both guarantees stable sales channels for agricultural products and enhances added value through the processing stage.
Currently, Anqiu has formed a comprehensive industrial system including fruit and vegetable processing, meat processing, and feed processing. It has built 14 provincial-level industrial complexes focused on big ginger, scallions, and poultry meat, achieving enhancement across all stages and value addition throughout the entire chain. In 2024, the locality developed 50 new ecological demonstration farms and 50,000 mu of facility greenhouses, driving a 2.6 billion yuan increase in farmers' income.
Anqiu’s practical path is clear: using rigid supervision to fortify the foundation of quality and win international market trust; using ecological transformation to drive value multiplication and create high-end premium pricing capabilities; and finally, using chain extension to broaden the channels for common prosperity, ensuring that farmers become the greatest beneficiaries of industrial chain value addition. From a breaker of international standard barriers to the creation of a "Great Health" [9] food city, this agriculturally powerful city—which has grown its international competitiveness directly from the fields—is leading high-quality development with high standards, promoting the synergistic development of agricultural efficiency, farmer income, and ecological value.