"Are you here to apply for a job?" "No, we're here to interview the chairman." "Oh, there have been so many people coming today—dozens, even over a hundred."

At noon on the seventh day of the first lunar month, an unexpected exchange took place between the security guard and the reporting team at the gate of Sichuan Meiyan Ocean Food Co., Ltd. With the holiday period not yet over, why was this western China's largest fresh-chilled salmon processing urgently hiring workers?

Workers are removing the heads of chilled salmon

When we met Chairman Du Min, he had just finished a string of phone calls. "The holiday is finally coming to an end—I'm absolutely exhausted." said the post-80s executive, his eyes weary but excitement unmistakable. Located in the Western Fresh Produce Port in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Meiyan Ocean operated nonstop throughout the nine-day Spring Festival holiday, with its production lines running continuously from the first day of the break. Its products account for 30% of Sichuan's fresh-chilled salmon wholesale market and 40% of Chengdu's Japanese restaurants.

Walking along the observation corridor, one could see through glass panels into multiple independent workstations: workers swiftly performed tasks including decapitation, filleting, trimming, portioning, plating, X-ray inspection, packaging, and labeling on salmon weighing 6–7 kilograms each. Du Min explained that the facility processes approximately 10 metric tons per day, and simply lifting the fish constitutes strenuous physical labor. This year's Spring Festival shipment volume reached 120 metric tons—a record high, far surpassing the 50 and 80 metric tons shipped during the previous two years, respectively.

"Over a hundred staff worked overtime on Chinese New Year's Eve. We were short-handed, so everyone from logistics joined in packing and delivery." Du Min said, showing a photo of more than 100 employees gathered in the canteen enjoying an eight-dish reunion dinner, all smiling brightly.

Workers are weighing goods

General Manager Liu Qiu frankly admitted that salmon processing this year has entered a "frenzied pace"—a development both logical and surprising. As Sichuan accelerates its efforts to build a national salmon distribution hub, consumption is clearly shifting downward: the fastest-growing orders are no longer coming from Chengdu, but from cities like Yibin, Luzhou, and Zigong. Thanks to stable global supply chains, efficient international logistics, rapid customs clearance under the "two-stage access" policy, and the rise of e-commerce, fresh-chilled salmon is rapidly becoming part of everyday diets in western China.

Workers are weighing and arranging boxes

During the Spring Festival holiday, frontline workers started their shifts daily at 7:30 a.m. and worked until midnight, while logistics staff rotated in shifts to pack and ship goods: daytime deliveries served supermarkets and Japanese restaurants within Sichuan Province, and shipments departed early the next morning for Chongqing, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Qinghai, and Xizang.

Early on the morning of the seventh day of the first lunar month, Liu Qiu posted a "call for talent" on her social media circle, announcing plans to recruit 70–80 personnel for positions including HR administration, workshop supervisors, quality control, warehouse management, and sales assistants. With a new fresh-produce production line slated to break ground this year, the company has already begun preparations for its next phase of growth.

【本文部分内容由AI辅助生成，特此声明。The author(s) generated part of the content in this work with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), which is hereby declared.】