Most fresh produce is shipped cold and humid. Garlic and dry onions are the exception: they are shipped cold and dry, and they keep breathing in the pack. The UC Davis Postharvest Center recommends −1 to 0 °C (30–32 °F) and 60–70 % relative humidity for garlic, with good airflow to prevent any moisture accumulation; under those conditions garlic stores for more than 9 months, against 1–2 months at ambient temperature. For dry onions the same source gives 0 °C and 65–70 % relative humidity with adequate air circulation (1 m³ of air per minute per m³ of onions); pungent onions then keep 6–9 months, mild onions only 0.5–1 month.
That is why every garlic and onion pack, whether it is a mesh produce bag, a corrugated carton or a PP corrugated box, is judged on how much air reaches the bulbs and how squarely it stacks, before price or print.
| Parameter | Garlic | Dry bulb onions |
|---|---|---|
| Optimum temperature | −1 to 0 °C (30–32 °F) | 0 °C (32 °F) |
| Optimum relative humidity | 60–70 %; above 70 % causes moulding and sprouting | 65–70 % with adequate air circulation |
| Storage life at optimum | More than 9 months (1–2 months at ambient temperature) | Pungent types 6–9 months; mild types 0.5–1 month |
| Temperature range that triggers sprouting | Dormancy is lost fastest at 5–18 °C | 5–25 °C favours sprouting |
| Airflow guideline in storage | About 1 cfm of air per cubic foot of garlic | 1 m³ of air per minute per m³ of onions |
| Freezing risk | Freezes at temperatures below −1 °C | Frozen scales turn soft and water-soaked and decay quickly |
| Ethylene | Very low production; not sensitive | May encourage sprouting and decay fungi |
| Mixed loads | Odour transfers easily to other products; may be stored with onions | Strongly scented; store separately from other products |
Sources: UC Davis Postharvest Research and Extension Center (garlic and dry onion fact sheets); Global Cold Chain Alliance commodity manual for garlic; Cargo Handbook. Published guidance is not identical: Cargo Handbook gives −2 to 0 °C and 65–75 % relative humidity for garlic in transit and 65–75 % for dry onions, and one Chinese exporter ships garlic at −3 to 0 °C. Agree the set point in writing with your buyer and carrier.
Pack size is set by the destination market, not by the grower. North American buyers think in pounds, most other buyers in kilograms, and the same garlic can leave the packhouse in a 10 kg carton for one customer and a 20 kg mesh bag for another.
| Format | Net weight | Typical use | Material and points to specify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onion mesh sack | 50 lb, 25 lb, 10 lb | U.S. wholesale and foodservice dry bulb onions | Woven or knitted mesh bag; state flat width and length, colour, closure (drawstring or sewn) and print band or label |
| Onion consumer mesh bag | 5 lb, 3 lb, 2 lb pre-packs | Retail pre-pack onions | Fine mesh with printed band or wine-glass label; size range of the onions decides the bag width |
| Onion carton | 40 lb or 50 lb | U.S. wholesale and foodservice dry bulb onions | Ventilated corrugated carton; board grade, vent holes and stacking pattern |
| Garlic export carton | 10 kg (also 20 kg and 5 kg) | Loose bulbs for import wholesalers; Europe also buys 5 kg units | Ventilated corrugated carton with hand holes; print, bulb size marking and lot code |
| Garlic U.S. carton | 30 lb (13.6 kg) | U.S. terminal markets, for example Argentine white garlic in New York | Ventilated corrugated carton; loose bulbs or netted sleeves inside |
| Garlic mesh bag | 10 kg or 20 kg; sacks up to 25 kg in some trades | Loose bulbs for wholesale and processing | Mesh sack; width, length, colour and closure |
| Garlic retail net | 250 g, 500 g or 1 kg tubes or mesh sacks; sleeves of 2, 3, 4 or 5 bulbs | Supermarket pre-packs, shipped inside a master carton (for example 250 g × 40 bags per carton, or 12 mesh bags of 2 kg) | Tubular netting with label or header card; master carton spec as above |
| Reusable corrugated plastic box | By design | Field harvest, curing shed, packhouse handling, market and farm-shop delivery | 4–5 mm PP corrugated sheet, foldable; vent holes, hand holes and print by design |
Sources: National Onion Association (onion mesh bags of 2, 3, 5, 10, 25 and 50 lb; cartons of 40 or 50 lb); USDA Market News New York terminal report of October 1, 2026 (garlic in 30 lb cartons, Chinese garlic netted 5s); Frutas & Hortalizas (garlic boxes or sacks of 5 and 10 kg, sacks up to 25 kg, U.S. boxes of 13.6 kg, European 5 kg units and 12 × 2 kg meshes, retail nets of 250, 500 and 1,000 g); Garlics.com exporter listing (10 kg and 20 kg cartons and mesh bags, 250 g × 40 bags per carton). FAO also describes 10 lb cartons holding 12 tube or mesh bags. Bag dimensions and board grades are not standardised, so they are left to the specification.
The National Onion Association also sizes onions by diameter: Large/Jumbo is 3 in and up, Medium is 2 to 3¼ in and Colossal is 3¾ in and up. Bulb size changes how many pieces fill a 3 lb bag and how wide that bag must be, so give the size range with every enquiry. Mesh constructions, colours and closures are explained in the mesh produce bags guide.
| Criterion | Mesh bag | Corrugated carton | Corrugated plastic box |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airflow to the bulbs | Highest when bags are loose; storage guides recommend loose mesh bags or bulk bins for garlic. Tightly stacked sacks restrict air movement, which limits long-term storage of onions in sacks | Depends entirely on the vent holes and on keeping them aligned across the pallet | Set by the vent and hand-hole design; the sheet itself does not breathe |
| Protection from pressure and bruising | Low: the bulbs carry the load | High: the carton walls carry the load | High: rigid walls |
| Behaviour with moisture | Not affected | Board loses strength when damp, so keep it out of rain and condensation | Does not absorb moisture; can be washed |
| Stacking and palletising | Sacks stack irregularly | Square, stable pallet layers | Square and stackable; folds flat when empty |
| Branding | Printed band, label or tag | Full printed panels | Printed panels |
| Trips | One | One | Many, where the box is recovered |
| Typical role | Onion sacks of 10–50 lb, garlic sacks of 10–20 kg, retail nets | 10 kg and 30 lb garlic cartons, 40–50 lb onion cartons, master cartons for retail nets | Harvest, curing, packhouse and local delivery loops |
| Payload per 40 ft reefer (one exporter's garlic figures) | 28–30 t in 20 kg bags | 24–26 t in 10 kg cartons | Not published; normally not used for one-way export |
The practical rule: sell by the sack in mesh, sell by the box in cartons, and keep a reusable box for everything that happens before the export pack is filled. For the reusable side, the corrugated plastic thickness guide explains how sheet thickness relates to load, and the farmers market crates and produce bins guide covers the smaller sizes used for direct sales.
Packaging demand follows the trade flows. Garlic exports are dominated by a single origin; onion exports are spread across many.
| Origin | Published figure | What it means for packaging |
|---|---|---|
| China (garlic) | 2.25 million tons exported in 2020, about 80 % of international garlic trade; US$ 2.6 billion and 66.9 % of world garlic export value in 2025 | 10 kg and 20 kg cartons and mesh bags, plus netted retail packs in master cartons |
| Spain (garlic) | Up to 185,000 tons a year; US$ 507.2 million and 12.8 % of world export value in 2025 | Carton and retail-net programmes for European and overseas buyers |
| Argentina (garlic) | US$ 174.7 million and 4.4 % of world export value in 2025. Mendoza grows 12,000–14,000 ha and 140,000–156,000 tons a year, ships to more than 30 markets and sends about 80 % of its garlic to Brazil; Europe, the United States, Mexico and Taiwan are secondary markets | Harvest starts in late October and runs to mid-December, followed by 12–15 days of curing, so cartons must be on site before the harvest; Argentine white garlic is quoted in 30 lb cartons in New York |
| Netherlands (onions) | 1,238,272 tons exported in the 2024/2025 season (+17 %) to more than 130 countries; Senegal alone took over 181,000 tons. US$ 1.036 billion and 25.1 % of world onion export value in 2025 | Long sea voyages to warm, humid destinations make ventilation and sack strength the first specification items |
| World totals | Garlic exports US$ 3.96 billion in 2025; onion exports US$ 4.13 billion in 2025 (after the Netherlands: China 11.1 %, India 9.8 %, Mexico 8.3 %, United States 7.1 %) | Two crops, one requirement: dry, ventilated packs that survive weeks in transit |
Sources: EastFruit (January 2021); World's Top Exports (2025 values; the onion figure covers onions and shallots); FreshPlaza (September 22, 2025; June 10, 2026; October 31, 2023); USDA Market News (October 1, 2026). The harvest dates are from the 2023 season report and move with the weather.
We found only one published loading figure for garlic that we are willing to repeat, and it comes from an exporter rather than a standards body: a Chinese garlic shipper lists 28–30 tonnes per 40 ft reefer in 20 kg mesh bags and 24–26 tonnes in 10 kg cartons. At 10 kg net per carton that is roughly 2,400–2,600 cartons. The same shipper states that garlic must travel in a reefer container.
Treat those numbers as a starting point for your forwarder, not as a specification:
A packaging enquiry that contains the following can be quoted quickly and compared line by line between suppliers. Missing items are the usual reason two quotations for "a 10 kg garlic carton" differ by a wide margin.
| Item | Mesh bags | Corrugated cartons | Corrugated plastic boxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product and size | Garlic or onion, variety or colour, bulb size range, net weight per pack | ||
| Dimensions | Flat width × length; roll or cut bags | Inside length × width × height; carton style (regular slotted, telescopic, tray with lid) | Outside and inside dimensions; foldable or fixed; lid or open top |
| Material | Mesh construction, bag weight in grams, colour, UV stabiliser if stored outdoors | Number of plies, flute, paper weights, compression strength required | Sheet thickness in mm, sheet weight in g/m², colour |
| Ventilation | Mesh openness | Number, size and position of vent and hand holes | Number, size and position of vent and hand holes |
| Closure and handling | Drawstring, sewn top or clip; label or band | Glue, tape, staples or self-locking; machine or hand erection | Corner fixing, handles, stacking rim, expected load per box and stack height |
| Band or label artwork, colours | Colours, panels printed, barcode and lot area | Colours and panels printed | |
| Logistics | Pallet footprint and maximum height, floor-loaded or palletised, storage and transit temperature and humidity, transit time | ||
| Commercial | Quantity per order and per year, required delivery date, destination port and Incoterm, sample requirement, certificates (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, FSC, SGS test report) | ||
Send the enquiry through the contact page, by email or on WhatsApp; a photo of your current pack with a tape measure next to it replaces half of the table above.
Fuxing Group is a packaging manufacturer with plants in Dongguan (China), Haiphong (Vietnam) and Davao and Calamba (Philippines). For garlic and onion programmes we make three things:
All three are made to your drawing or sample with OEM printing. Our certifications are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and FSC, with SGS verification, and we reply to quotation requests within 12 hours. What we will not do is quote a price, a minimum quantity or a delivery date on this page: those depend on the size, print and quantity in your RFQ, and we would rather give you a real number than a headline one. We also do not grow, pack or trade garlic or onions; the storage and trade figures above come from the published sources listed below, not from our own trials.
Send your pack size, dimensions, print and quantity. Fuxing Group manufactures mesh produce bags, 5-ply corrugated cartons and 4–5 mm PP corrugated plastic boxes in China, Vietnam and the Philippines, with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, FSC and SGS verification. Quotation within 12 hours.
Quote on WhatsApp Email jacky@fuxinggroup.cn