If you had to guess which county in all of China exports the most agricultural products, the answer might surprise you. That distinction belongs to Anqiu, a county-level city in Weifang, Shandong Province.
As the nation's top county for agricultural exports, Anqiu has led Shandong Province in vegetable export volume for 17 consecutive years. Its exports of ginger, scallions, and onions alone account for over 80% of the nation's total for these three categories. So, how does Anqiu pull this off?
Behind this achievement lies a relentless pursuit of quality and safety in agricultural products, coupled with a firm crackdown on agricultural inputs. At the Changshengyuan Ecological Family Farm in Anqiu, manager Wang Baojie can remotely control the greenhouse's integrated water and fertilizer system via his smartphone. "In the past, growing ginger relied entirely on experience. Indiscriminate fertilizer application led to soil compaction and frequent ginger blight. Now, with virus-free ginger seeds and systematic plant protection technology, we've cut fertilizer use by more than half, improved soil organic matter, and doubled yield per mu. Our ginger has successfully entered the European Union market," Wang said, reflecting on the transformation of his farming practices.
As early as 2007, Anqiu pioneered the establishment of a deputy-county-level agricultural product quality and safety supervision center, with 14 township-level management service stations underneath. This top-down approach integrates supervision, testing, law enforcement, and traceability into a single cohesive system. Meanwhile, a dedicated team of 108 full-time agricultural safety officers is active in the fields year-round, responsible for surveying, sampling, and testing all agricultural products in the city, conducting over 100,000 samples annually. This force of professional expertise and technical support enables Anqiu to achieve dynamic monitoring of every plot of land and precise quality control over every batch of produce.
Ginger, the standout star of Anqiu's export portfolio, has pesticide residues as a critical indicator affecting its international sales. To tackle the persistent soil-borne diseases caused by continuous cropping in ginger cultivation, the city didn't simply rely on chemical pesticides; instead, it launched a "revolution" at the soil level. The local supply and marketing cooperative, in collaboration with research institutes, pioneered the nationwide promotion of technical standards for soil fumigation and remediation services. This has reduced the use of chemical pesticides during the growing season by 30% to 50%. At the same time, Anqiu conducts thorough inspections of agricultural supply stores, strictly cracking down on the illegal sale and use of banned soil fumigants like methyl bromide.
Furthermore, ecological farming concepts are being implemented to the fullest. The Heli Ecological Farm uses biogas slurry to replace traditional chemical fertilizers, leveraging an intelligent water and fertilizer integration system for precise control, creating a virtuous cycle of "disease prevention through planting and soil nourishment through fertilization." In Anqiu, there are over 1,900 such family farms. The city's 400,000 mu of ecological bases have moved away from over-reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, with soil organic matter content significantly improved. The pass rate for pesticide residue tests on its agricultural products remains stable at over 99% year-round.
Superior quality has made Anqiu's "international passport" for its produce even more credible. The city has assigned a unique "digital ID" quality safety code to all 130,000 production and business entities, paired with an ecological origin code to form a "dual-code" system. Consumers can scan the code to view the entire process from planting to testing, greatly enhancing trust in international markets. In response to frequently adjusted pesticide residue standards across the globe, Anqiu has also built the nation's first database of international agricultural standards, dynamically tracking regulatory changes in 67 countries and regions, and providing precise early warnings to export companies six months in advance. Today, Anqiu's agricultural products are shipped worldwide at a scale of 180 standard containers per day, safeguarding "safety on the tip of the tongue" through its strictest pesticide control initiatives.