Chives are serious business in Xinghua city, East China's Jiangsu province, where many folks rely on the culinary herb for their livelihoods.
Xinghua is a region with low-lying terrain and continuous lakes. From the times of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), its people built mounds of soil and gradually built up the levels of fields there surrounded by water on all sides.
Xinghua's farmers plant 2-3 crops of chives annually, most of which are planted on these raised fields.
Shen Minghua, head of the Minghua fruit and vegetable cooperative, said that after a crop is brought in and weighed the farmers receive their money and the distribution of the harvest is handled by the cooperative.
During the peak harvest season, the cooperative can sell 10,000 kilograms of chives per day.
Chives in the cooperative are transported to wholesale vegetable markets in Nanjing, Wuxi, Huai'an and other cities, as well as to local dehydrated vegetable processing manufacturers.
"Xinghua chives are universal worldwide," said Wang Shanyu, head of food manufacturer Xinghua Lianfa Foods Co Ltd.
He added that their dehydrated chives mainly from Xinghua are to be found in the instant noodles of the Japanese Nissin, South Korean Nongshim and Chinese brands.
Nowadays, there are 13,000 growers, 12,000 workers and over 2,000 brokers and e-commerce people engaged in Xinghua's flourishing chive industry supply chain.
Chives in Xinghua are planted on raised fields that look like small islands, with water on all sides. [Photo/js.people.com.cn]