Shandong's vegetable industry enters its peak season as summer arrives. The province has been focusing on developing characteristic vegetable product chains.

For instance, in Linyi's Lanling county and Heze's Caoxian county, the "special planting with full industry chain" model has been adopted to enhance the quality and efficiency of the vegetable industry.

In Lanling, vegetable farmer Xie Pingcheng, a well-known local expert in cucumber planting, is picking cucumbers in his greenhouse at 4 am.

"Cucumbers picked at this time are the freshest and tastiest," he said. He uses straw and soybean meal to make biofertilizer, which improves the quality of cucumbers and reduces costs.

Xie Pingcheng in his vegetable greenhouse. [Photo by Liu Zheng/Dazhong News]

In Caoxian, more than 3,000 metric tons of fresh vegetables are sent to major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen daily. The county has developed a complete industry chain from seedling cultivation to processing, cold chain transportation, and sales. The development of the cold chain has boosted the local vegetable industry.

In Lanling county, vegetable plantations cover 1.2 million mu (about 80,000 hectares), with an annual output of 5 million tons. In Caoxian county, the area for rapeseed planting is about 65,000 mu, creating 45,000 jobs and generating over 3 billion yuan ($414.34 million) in annual output.

Workers in Caoxian, Shandong province, pack up fresh oilseed rape. [Photo by Liu Zheng/Dazhong News]