Key facts
- Jinxiang county, China's garlic capital, supplies over two-thirds of the world's exported garlic.
- The harvest season attracts nearly 10,000 migrant workers to Jinxiang county.
- Garlic digging is a physically demanding manual labor job, often done by older women.
- Mechanization is gradually being adopted in harvesting, processing, and sales due to rising costs and declining profitability.
- E-commerce and livestreaming are emerging as new sales methods for garlic.
- The garlic industry supports tens of thousands of jobs across various sectors.
Jinxiang county in Shandong province, recognized as China's garlic capital, is responsible for supplying over two-thirds of the world's exported garlic. During the May harvest season, the county transforms into a bustling temporary workplace, with roads lined with garlic and workers arriving from neighboring regions. However, this abundance is accompanied by a significant transition within the industry as mechanization advances and younger generations seek opportunities beyond traditional rural labor.
Garlic harvesting remains a labor-intensive process, largely dependent on manual digging using iron shovels, with many of the workers being women or individuals in their 60s. The early morning hours see a swarm of workers gathering to negotiate digging contracts, highlighting the demand for seasonal labor. Despite the physically demanding nature of the work, it offers substantial income for rural households, with many earning several hundred yuan daily, supplementing pensions or scarce factory jobs.
Mechanization is gradually altering the landscape of garlic production. Rising costs and reduced profitability have prompted some farmers to adopt small harvesting machines, while larger operations utilize equipment capable of covering significant acreage. Nonetheless, widespread interplanting practices in Jinxiang limit the full-scale replacement of human diggers by machines. Technology has already made substantial inroads in cold storage and processing facilities, where forklifts and automated screening machines have replaced much of the manual labor previously required for sorting and handling.
In processing plants, automated lines efficiently sort garlic, though some traditional hand-sorting methods persist. The industry as a whole supports tens of thousands of jobs, but the composition of the workforce is evolving. Younger entrepreneurs, like university graduate Liu Guosai, are revitalizing the business through e-commerce and livestreaming sales, creating hundreds of jobs in packaging and logistics, often employing older women from local villages. While these new methods are growing, limited digital literacy means that much of the work behind online orders remains manual.