The grain harvest is in full swing across China, with more than 266,667 hectares of winter wheat being reaped by agricultural machinery every day and almost 20 percent of the crop already harvested, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The harvest in wheat-growing areas in the southwest and in the central province of Hubei is coming to an end, while in Henan and Anhui, the main wheat production provinces in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, harvesting is at its peak.
In Henan's Zhumadian City, local authorities have deployed more than 30,000 combine harvesters to help farmers bring in 733,300 hectares of wheat.
"The wheat yield is around 1,200 to 1,300 jin per mu (9,000 to 9,750 kilograms per hectare), and is growing well," said Feng Pingxin, a local farmer.
More than 2.87 million hectares of wheat planted in Anhui is ready to harvest with 160,000 high-performance combine harvesters working in the fields, and local authorities coordinating operations across 567 drying centers to ensure that every grain can be collected and safely stored.
"There will be light rain in the following days, but we don't need to worry at all. Because there are 44 dryers [in the dry center], and they can process over 1,300 tons of wheat every day," said Li Peigen, a grain farmer in Auhui's Huoqiu County.
In Xuyi County, the first place in east China's Jiangsu Province to harvest wheat this year, over 5,000 combine harvesters have been urgently mobilized ahead of rain forecast in the next few days.
Local authorities have allocated agricultural machinery using big data analysis to support farmers bring in the harvest.
Four million hectares of wheat in the eastern province of Shandong is nearing harvest time, with dry land wheat in the southern part of the province gradually ripening.
Drought-resistant and high-yield wheat is the main variety grown locally in Shandong's Zhangshanzi Town. With fully mechanized reaping operations, the yield of dry land wheat is projected to increase by more than 10 percent compared to previous years.
Over 17 million agricultural machines will be put into use nationwide during this year's "three summer period," which refers to the summer harvest, summer sowing and summer management activities usually carried out from mid-May to June.
More than 800,000 combine harvesters are expected to be involved this summer, including 200,000 harvesters operating cross-regionally, to reap 22.7 million hectares of wheat planted across the country during the summer harvest season that will last for around three weeks.
In China, the main grain and oil crops harvested in summer are wheat and rapeseed sown in the previous autumn and winter.
Mechanized summer harvest in full swing across China
From cutting-edge technology exhibitions to retail stores thousands of kilometers away from Europe and Southeast Asia, China-made robot vacuum cleaners are increasingly becoming a popular choice among consumers worldwide.
At electronics retailers in Berlin, Germany, Chinese brands such as Roborock and Dreame occupy prominent positions in dedicated robot vacuum sections, offering a wide range of products priced between 200 and 2,000 euros.
Many local consumers said that when purchasing smart home appliances including robot vacuum cleaners, they tend to give priority to Chinese-made products.
"It's a good price and good quality. It's also the innovation. I have a feeling that the European brands are not innovating enough," said one customer.
"I think they're always on top of the other technologies. They are getting them out faster. A lot of us are switching to the Chinese technology," another consumer said.
Germany is one of the most important overseas markets for China's floor-cleaning robots.
According to data from market research firm GfK, from January to November 2025, more than six out of 10 robot vacuum cleaners sold in Western Europe were Chinese brands.
Industry data also point to a strong global momentum.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), global shipments of smart robot vacuum cleaners reached 17.424 million units in the first three quarters of 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.7 percent.
Chinese brands including Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, Xiaomi and Narwal ranked among the world's top five in terms of shipment volume, with a combined share of nearly 70 percent of the global market.
At a robot vacuum cleaner manufacturing plant in Huizhou, south China's Guangdong Province, workers were seen stepping up production of newly launched models that recently debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States, which concluded Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The factory adjusted its production lines as early as December 2025 and stocked inventory in advance for overseas markets to ensure that new products could be delivered to global consumers at the earliest possible time.
"In 2025, Roborock's global shipments exceeded 7.2 million units. Since 2024, overseas revenue has accounted for more than 50 percent of our total revenue. Our products have now been sold to more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than 20 million households worldwide," said Quan Gang, president of Roborock.
At another robot vacuum cleaner manufacturing facility in Dongguan, Guangdong, rising overseas orders have prompted the company to upgrade its production lines with intelligent technologies to further boost capacity. The factory is currently operating at full load to meet a growing demand.
"For 2026, we have already obtained overseas orders worth at least 300 million to 400 million yuan (around 43 million to 57.3 million U.S. dollars). In addition, we've engaged in strategic cooperation with European home appliance group Cebos Group, and our total confirmed orders have exceeded 600 million yuan (around 86 million U.S. dollars)," said Zhang Junbin, founder and CEO of Narwal Robotics.
Chinese robot vacuum brands gain strong global traction
