Our Team, Our Region
About Jinxiang, China's Garlic Capital
Jinxiang County in southwestern Shandong is the origin of most of the garlic the world imports from China. The region grows more than 2 million tonnes of Shandong garlic a year, and the county has carried the title of China's Garlic Capital since 1996. We are a sourcing team based here, with our own cold storage and direct relationships across the local industry. This page introduces the region and the team that helps you buy from it.
Who We Are
A Sourcing Team With Deep Roots in the Local Garlic Industry
We are a Jinxiang-based sourcing and trade facilitation team. Our own cold storage in the Jinxiang area holds inventory through the off-season, which is why our buyers receive cold-stored crop in February as reliably as new crop in June.
Our relationships run across the full local chain: growers, primary processors, dehydration plants, deep-processing factories, and logistics providers. When an order calls for a specific size grade, certification, or packaging format, we already know which facilities can run it and which cannot.
That local knowledge is the service. Jinxiang has more than 1,200 garlic enterprises, and international buyers rarely have the time or the language skills to vet them one by one. We close that gap as a single reliable, English-speaking partner on the ground.
- Company-controlled cold storage in the Jinxiang area
- Direct access to growers, processors, dehydration plants, and deep-processing factories
- One English-speaking contact from first inquiry to loaded container
- In-person facility visits and lot inspection before anything ships
📷 Fresh garlic on sorting table
/images/hero-sorting-table.jpg
📷 Jinxiang town streetscape
/images/about-jinxiang-town.jpg
- Latitude
- 35°N, inside the optimal garlic-growing belt
- Soil
- Mineral-rich loam on the Yellow River alluvial plain
- Water
- Si River watershed
- Climate
- Temperate continental, with a long cool growing season
- Planted area
- 600,000-700,000 mu in the county (about 40,000-47,000 hectares)
- Status
- China's Garlic Capital since 1996; National Geographical Indication product
History & Geography
The Origin of Shandong Garlic
Jinxiang (金乡) has grown garlic for more than 2,000 years; written records of cultivation date to the Eastern Han dynasty. The county belongs to Jining City in southwestern Shandong Province and sits at 35°N latitude, inside the belt where garlic grows best.
The soil explains the quality. Jinxiang lies on the Yellow River alluvial plain, in the Si River watershed, on mineral-rich loam under a temperate continental climate. Garlic is planted in September and October, overwinters in the field, produces scapes in April, and is harvested in late May and June, when the new crop enters the market.
Jinxiang was named China's Garlic Capital in 1996, and its garlic is protected as a National Geographical Indication product. Planting covers 600,000-700,000 mu in the county itself, about 40,000-47,000 hectares, and more than 2 million mu when the surrounding counties are included.
Industry Scale
The Scale Behind China's Garlic Capital
Scale is what separates Jinxiang from every other garlic origin. The figures below describe the regional pool of suppliers, storage, and processing capacity we select from on a buyer's behalf. Depth of supply means a specification that one facility cannot meet moves to one that can, and competition among sellers keeps quotations sharp.
| Indicator | Figure | What it means for your order |
|---|---|---|
| Garlic storage and processing enterprises | 1,200+ | A supplier pool deep enough that every specification has several qualified candidates. |
| Companies with self-managed import and export rights | 900+ | Export documentation, phytosanitary requirements, and customs routines are standard practice here. |
| Above-scale processing enterprises | 128 | Industrial certified plants for dehydrated and deep-processed product lines. |
| Standard cold storage facilities | 5,000+ | Regional capacity above 5 million tonnes keeps cold-stored crop available in every month of the year. |
| Annual processing capacity | 1.1M+ tonnes | Processed formats ship at commodity volume without straining lead times. |
| Annual trading volume | 3M+ tonnes | The Jinxiang spot market is where the reference price for traded garlic is set. |
| Full industry chain output | ¥68.8 billion | Seed, farming, storage, processing, trading, and logistics operate as one integrated economy. |
| Jinxiang Garlic brand value (2023) | ¥21.8 billion | A regional brand with a formally assessed value, protected by Geographical Indication status. |
Figures refer to Jinxiang County and the surrounding garlic-producing region of Shandong Province.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure Built for Export
Growing garlic is only the start; Jinxiang also built the machinery to move it. Purpose-built storage parks, a national trading market, electronic auctions, on-site customs clearance, and direct rail and port access mean a container can go from cold store to vessel with every step handled inside the county's own system. We use this infrastructure daily, and it is a large part of why orders placed here move faster than orders placed anywhere else in the garlic trade.
📷 Aerial view of storage complex
/images/supply-aerial-complex.jpg
GarlicWorld Industry Park
A 520 mu storage and processing park, about 35 hectares, with 226 large cold storage units holding 250,000 tonnes of garlic and 350,000 tonnes of garlic flakes. Its intelligent cold warehouse, the first in China, is 10x the size of a conventional unit, with 60% lower storage cost and 80% less land use.
National Garlic International Trading Market
The trading floor of the garlic business: 230+ garlic enterprises and 90+ logistics companies handle 24 billion yuan in annual trading volume. Spot prices form here, and we benchmark every quotation against them.
AI-Powered Auction Center
China's first agricultural product auction center with an AI-powered trading platform. Electronic bidding gives price discovery a transparent, recorded basis.
County-Level Customs Center
China's first county-level customs trade facilitation center operates in Jinxiang itself, providing one-stop export clearance before containers leave the county.
Cold-Chain Container Rail
An international cold-chain container rail service gives Jinxiang garlic direct overland connectivity along Belt and Road corridors.
Deep-Sea Ports
Qingdao Port, 4 hours away by road, is the primary gateway for garlic containers. Lianyungang serves as the alternate port.
Research & Standards
R&D and Quality Standards
Jinxiang treats garlic as a research subject. Local breeding programs sent garlic seed on space missions in 2006 and 2011, and the resulting Jinsuan No. 5 variety delivers a 26% yield improvement. Behind the breeding work stands a research base that includes the China Garlic Functional Food Research Center, which anchors work on extracts and health applications.
Standards make this research usable for buyers. The industry runs on a 343-item standard system covering the full chain from seed to export carton, alongside 68+ international independent IP rights. When we write size grade, moisture, or residue limits into your contract, we specify against these published standards, and the processing plants already work to them.
The output of all this is a product range that runs from fresh bulbs to allicin extract. See the products this ecosystem produces, then read how we store, inspect, and ship them from Jinxiang to your port.
Work With a Team Inside China's Garlic Capital
Tell us the product, specification, quantity, and destination port. We source from Jinxiang's 1,200+ garlic enterprises, inspect in person, and reply within 24 hours.