Maoming, a southern city in China known as the world's largest lychee producer, embraces a total planting area of more than 92,666 hectares with an annual output of over 500,000 tons, accounting for about 1/2 of Guangdong's total, 1/4 of the country's and 1/5 of the world's.

Maoming boasts a thousand-year history of lychee cultivation. Currently, there are more than 350 lychee trees over a thousand years in Maoming, over 1,000 over 500 years, and 19,400 over 100 years.

With projects such as the Maoming Lychee National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, the China Lychee & Longan Industry Conference, the China Lychee Expo Center, and the China National Lychee Germplasm Resource Nursery settled in Maoming, the lychee industrial chain here has been upgraded comprehensively from production, cultivation, product processing and marketing, contributing to over 10 billion yuan value.

Over the past few years, the lychee industry in Maoming has developed a new arena of e-commerce express that distinguishes it from traditional transport in sales by upgrading each link of the supply chain.

Officially launched in 2013, the Maoming Lychee Delivery Project has sent over 200,000 lychee parcels, creating new paths for sales. By 2022, the volume of lychee delivery service in Maoming has reached 13 million pieces.

Under the guidance of the Maoming government, a number of courier brands have increased their investment in the market, establishing processing centers for cold storage, pre-processing and distribution in the main production areas of lychee in Maoming, together with a backbone network of cold chain logistics infrastructure for agricultural products covering the main areas of both lychee production and sales, thus realising the connection from field to table.

Catalyzed by the market, lychee e-commerce businesses in Maoming have conducted multifaced cooperation, which enables e-commerce sales to serve as a major way for higher prices and larger scale of lychee sales.

Lychee cultivation in Maoming is now backed by strong technology, with quality platforms such as digital management platforms for lychee industrial parks. At present, in addition to the sale of fresh fruit, enterprises in Maoming also produce more than 30 kinds of deep-processing products such as dried lychee, lychee pork, canned lychee, lychee wine, lychee fermented drinks, which effectively extend the lychee industry chain and inject new momentum into the development of the industry.

"In Maoming, it is industrial parks that enable variety improvement, storage, and transportation to be managed orderly. Lychee growers have no worry about the price and marketing problems," said the grower Wu Xinghua from Yuanba village in Genzi town.

In the grasp of good marketing simultaneously, Maoming constantly enriches the portfolios of various lychee products to promote the integration of its whole industries. To be more specific, the country works to create lychee-centred industry clusters that integrate agriculture, culture and tourism with innovation, and to design diverse boutique routes so as to push the steady and far-reaching development of the lychee industry.

全球每5颗荔枝就有1颗产自茂名

茂名是世界最大的荔枝生产基地，种植面积约139万亩，年产量超50万吨，约占广东的1/2，全国的1/4，全世界的1/5。

在茂名，荔枝种植已有千年历史。目前，茂名全市千年以上荔枝树超过350株，五百年以上的超过1000株，百年以上的达19400株。

随着茂名市荔枝国家现代农业产业园、中国荔枝龙眼产业大会、中国荔枝博览馆、国家荔枝种质资源圃落户茂名，荔枝从生产种植、产品加工、市场销售等方面完善产业链条，全产业链条实现超百亿元。

过去数年，茂名荔枝在供应链上所有环节各扬所长，开辟了一条区别于传统运输销售的电商快递销售赛道。

2013年，茂名荔枝寄递项目正式启动，寄递荔枝超20万件，开拓荔枝销售新路径。到2022年，茂名荔枝寄递业务量达1300万件。

在茂名市引导下，多家寄递品牌加大市场投资力度，在茂名荔枝主产区投入集冷藏、预处理、集散的处理中心，农产品冷链物流基础设施骨干网覆盖荔枝主产区和主销区，实现从田间到餐桌的连接。

在市场催化下，荔枝电商开始在多个方面合作，电商销售已成为提高茂名荔枝销售价格，拓展荔枝销售区域的重要方式。

茂名荔枝种植现在已经拥有雄厚的科技实力支撑，已建设荔枝产业园数字管理等优质平台。目前除了销售鲜果外，茂名市相关企业还生产有荔枝干、荔枝肉、荔枝罐头、荔枝红酒、荔枝发酵饮料等30多种深加工制品，有效延伸了荔枝产业链，为产业发展注入了新动能。

“现在有产业园了，品种改良、储藏、运输都有人管，我们农民不用担心价钱、销路的问题。”根子镇元坝村荔枝种植户吴兴华说。

在抓好营销工作的同时，茂名不断丰富“荔枝+N”组合产品，促进一二三产业融合发展，着力打造以荔枝为主题的“农文旅创一体化”产业集群，设计众多精品旅游线路，推动荔枝产业发展行稳致远。

文、图/羊城晚报全媒体记者 全良波
翻译/陈萱

责编 | 戚美青