"Longer lychee shelf life should make exports possible"

The Lychees are produced in Lingshan in Guangxi province by the Zhuang minority. The lychee cultivation has a long history. In 2015, the total area for lychee cultivation was 3,7 hectares. The supply season lasts from the end of May to mid July. The Lingshan lychees are also recognised and protected as a regional product since January 2012. 

But lychees aren't easy to store. Within 4 to 5 days, the taste is gone. Even with today's cooled logistics development, the trip from Guangxi to Beijing, Shanghai or Chengdu markets still takes 2 to 3 days. 

Mr. Deng from the Lingshan Lychee cultivation base spent many years in research and experiments to overcome this problem. At this point "we improved the quality of our lychees. The peel of the lychee is now stronger and better able to protect the fruit flesh. In transportation, we use dry transport, in room temperature of 18 degrees, without ice or water. This way, we stretched the preservation time to 10 days. 

Not having been damaged by cold Spring weather, the market situation of the lychees is remarkably good. Not only the lychees from Hainan and Guangxi reach staggering prices on the market, but the competition between different varieties is also less intense than in previous years. Mr. Deng says about this situation that "the market may be good, but during the production peak, the sales situation is very severe. In the future we need to find new channels to sell our lychees. We need to reach more middle-end and high-end markets. Only then the farmers will really be rewarded and have faith to keep growing lychees. 

"The reason we spent so much time to lengthen the shelf life time for lychees, is that we hope to reach more broad markets. We hope to share the taste of our lychees with the rest of the world."

Mr. Deng's lychee cultivation base is located in Lingshan. It covers an area of 67 hectares and another 67 hectares in cooperation with the surrounding farmers. "before we sold our lychees mainly to wholesale markets. With the internet as a channel for sales, our lychees finally left their production region and went to the rest of China. With our new preservation techniques, we want to reach the rest of the world. If someone is interested, they can directly contact us. 

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