Litchi Mouth: A Small Town in North America for Twenty Years

After the summer heat, the sales of Leiling lychees exceeded 70%. As a representative production area of late maturing lychee in the province, on July 1st, Leiling held the 16th Chaonan Leiling lychee Cultural Tourism Festival.

As one of the many lychee towns in Guangdong, Leiling lychee has been exported to North America for 20 consecutive years. Small and big, early and late, old and new. “Lei Ling Town Mayor Lian Liansheng used these three sets of keywords to describe the Lei Ling lychee industry.
Among them, “small” and “large” refer to the absolute amount of area yield and output value, which may be insignificant in the province, but the local lychee planting coverage is relatively high. The total planting area of lychee in the town is only 44000 acres, but it covers nearly half of the total planting area, reaching 47%.

Although the origin of cultivation is “early”, Leiling lychee is famous for its “late” nature. Guangdong lychees are mostly listed in mid May, while Leiling lychees are not available until mid to late June and can be harvested until late July. The main varieties are Feizixiao, Wuye, Guiwei, Lo mai chi, Huaizhi, etc. The total lychee production in the town is expected to reach 9000 tons in 2023.

Although launched late, the quality is excellent. The soil in Leiling Town belongs to granite developed sandy loam soil, containing various minerals; The excellent ecological conditions, coupled with a relatively late maturity period, allow Leiling lychee to absorb sufficient nutrients during its growth process, with more natural sugar content and outstanding quality.

And it was Zhang Haiyuan, the then president of the Leiling Town Litchi Association, who allowed such a wonderful fruit to go abroad. In 1998, he accidentally learned from the news that Raoping County, Chaozhou City, which belongs to the Chaoshan, had the only production base in eastern Guangdong that was exported to the United States at that time, which led him to the idea that “Leiling litchi can also go abroad”.

After several years of effort, in 2004, Zhang Haiyuan proactively contacted the former Shantou Entry Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and invited its plant inspection technicians to Leiling multiple times to inspect whether the quality of lychee meets export standards. With the help of personnel from the bureau, Leiling has established a scientific management system for lychee production and pesticide use, established a disease and pest epidemic monitoring system, and created a lychee export base of 2000 acres that meets international plant inspection requirements.

In order to facilitate the export of litchi in Leiling, the bureau has also allocated 100000 yuan to support Leiling to make preparations for the export of litchi, such as Pest control, harvest picking, fruit selection, cold storage, fresh-keeping, packaging and pesticide residue monitoring, and actively recommend to exporters to match production and sales.

Finally, Leiling Town reached a cooperation with an agricultural product foreign trade enterprise in Foshan. On July 6, 2005, with two containers carrying a total of 36.73 tons loaded and shipped to the United States, Leiling lychee’s “export dream” was finally realized. Speaking of this, Zhang Haiyuan is still very excited: “The first export of lychee to the United States has greatly boosted the confidence of growers and brought significant economic benefits to the local area.” Driven by this, some high-quality varieties have been supplied to the Hong Kong and Macao markets, and Leiling lychee has started to be sold in various parts of China.