Lychees are everywhere, from ancient trees to modern markets

In a lychee orchard in Maoming, Guangdong province, on Monday afternoon, He Jinbao climbed a tree and, dripping with sweat, picked the fruit, which is ready for harvest.

"I followed my father in cultivating lychee trees since my childhood," said He, 60, a farmer from Boqiao village in Maoming's Genzi township.

With a few bouquets of fresh lychee in hand, He noted that sales had increased significantly in recent years, thanks to diverse sales channels — especially livestreaming e-commerce.

"Also, the lychee are very sweet this year, as there was adequate rain and sunshine," he said. "Sales are expected to increase a lot."

The lychee orchard in Boqiao — known as a living lychee museum, with a planting area of more than 200 hectares — has 39 ancient lychee trees, each more than 500 years old.

Upgraded sales channels, the introduction of refrigeration to keep the fruit fresh and planting more species have helped boost the market for lychee from Maoming, according to He Xia, Party chief of Boqiao.

In e-commerce alone, sales of lychee from Maoming reached 2.16 billion yuan ($302.3 million) in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 19.2 percent, according to the local government.

Lychee fruit from Maoming has also been shipped overseas and has a presence in more than 20 countries and regions in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. Overseas sales are expected to increase by more than 30 percent year-on-year in 2023, the local government said.

Maoming is the largest lychee production base in Guangdong, with a planting area of nearly 93,000 hectares and an annual output of nearly 600,000 metric tons, accounting for about one-fourth of the country's total.

To upgrade the lychee industry, a raw pulp processing plant, established by Chinese herbal tea maker Guangzhou Wanglaoji Great Health Industry Corp, started up in May last year, generating revenues of around 400 million yuan.