"The best rambutan comes from Baoting"

Rambutan are also called hairy lychees. They were once classified by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation as 'one of the big four in fruit'. They are sweet, aromatic and filled with vitamins, amino acids, carbohydrates and multiple minerals. They are a typical fruit from the tropical regions and are widely spread in Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. But in China, they are only cultivated on a large scale in the Baoting region in Hainan. 

"Our rambutan cultivation surface can't match that of Southeast Asian countries, but our quality is better. Not only are our rambutan more juicy, but they are also sweeter. The sweetness of our rambutan can reach 23 brix. In June 2016, the 'Baoting rambutan' received a trademark certificate as proof that it was awarded as a national regional product. It is the first time that Baoting has obtained a trademark as proof of a national regional symbol."

Rambutan travels beyond Hainan
"Rambutan is a fruit that has rather high requirements for transport. If the temperature is not controlled well during the transport, the bright red peel of the rambutan will turn black. This has a heavy influence on the price. So in the past few years, when cool logistics weren't well developed, very few rambutan could be sold outside Hainan."

"In recent years, we experimented with some techniques to prolong the preservation time of the fresh fruits. For example, we harvest the rambutan before sunrise, which prevents vapour from appearing. Afterwards we do cold packaging at an early stage and we add ice packs to the preservation cases. Finally we deliver the rambutan to the customer by airfreight. In order to preserve the quality of the product, we require that the whole process from harvesting to delivery to the customer never exceeds more than 48 hours. At present, our rambutan not only travels beyond Hainan, but they even go all the way to Beijing, Shanghai and Canton."





Lower production but equal quality in 2016
"Because of the cold weather at the start of the year, a lot of rambutan just fell from the trees. This not only reduced the production volume, but the rambutan also ripened almost a month late. In the past years, the sales of rambutan were about finished at the end of September, but this year, they were only ready for harvest in mid-August. Then last week there was the typhoon, so we estimate that we will only start selling at the beginning of November."

"But even though the production volume is reduced, the quality of the rambutan at our cultivation base is still the same. In retrospect, it is actually the high demands towards cultivation that have helped us. From one side, we have handed the management of the cultivation over to fruit farmers with many years of experience. At the same time we also persisted in organic cultivation. This guarantees the quality of the rambutan from the start. This way, the rambutan were also much more resilient when they encountered the cold weather. The quality of the rambutan is higher, so selling them naturally becomes easier as well."

The company was founded in 2016. It is located in the Haitang district in Sanya and the Qishan square in Baoting. The forerunners of this company were Hainan Qishanying Agricultural Development, Sanya Haitang Bay Jiayuan Farmers Cooperative and Sanya Haitang Bay Xinnong Xiangyuan Farmers Cooperative. The members of the company are the local farmers. At present, the company has orchards of over 133 hectares where mangoes, lychees, wax apples, longan fruit and rambutan are cultivated. The rambutan variety cultivated here is mainly n° 7.

The team is inspecting the blossoms at the mango orchard

Following the market demands and the development of the industry, Farmers and Craftsmen became a company with a 'company + cooperative + cultivation base + farmers' model. This way the quality of the product is effectively controlled and the use of pesticides and chemical fertiliser is seriously restricted to guarantee that quality. At the same time, the company also established a common online sales and services team. With the use of the internet, intermediary chain segments can be left out and the Hainan fruits, made by true craftsmen, can be delivered straight from the cultivation ground to the customer's doorstep. 

For more information about Baoting rambutan and Hainan fruits,

Mr. Lin
Hainan Farmers and Craftsmen Agricultural Development
Telephone: (+86) 189 7664 2164