On May 16th, drones were seen transporting freshly harvested lychee in Renyaodong Village, Pingshan Town, Maoming City. In this hilly terrain, drone delivery has proven to be 62.5% cheaper than traditional manual transportation, giving the local lychee industry a technological boost.

In the lychee orchards of Renyaodong Village, farmers skillfully harvest, sort, and pack the fruit before loading it onto drones. Equipped with high-precision positioning systems and supported by the integration of 5G and the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), the drones are monitored via a flight control platform and fly with centimeter-level accuracy to a cold-chain center one kilometer away. Upon arrival, workers promptly unload the cargo, store it, pre-cool, package, and dispatch lychees, ensuring the fruit reaches markets across China in peak condition.

As one of Gaozhou's core lychee-producing areas, Pingshan Town is known for its large, sweet, and early-season fruit that dominates the early harvest market. However, its mountainous landscape has long hampered transport efficiency and increased spoilage, affecting both pricing and quality. Now, with rapid advances in drone technology and the rise of the low-altitude economy, drones offer significant advantages in terms of speed and flexibility in routing.

According to local sources, transporting the same weight of fresh lychees using traditional manpower, from hillside orchard to the base and then to cold storage, costs about 0.8 yuan per kilogram. In contrast, drones can fly directly from the orchard to cold storage, reducing the cost to around 0.3 yuan per kilogram, a 62.5% decrease.

Source: Lingnan on the Cloud

无人机助荔枝运输费下降六成

5月16日，在高州市平山镇仁耀垌村，低空无人机正在运输荔枝。对平山镇丘陵地形而言，无人机运输相比人力运输，成本降幅达62.5%，科技为荔枝产业发展按下“加速键”。

在平山镇仁耀垌村的荔枝园内，果农们熟练地采摘、分拣、装箱，随后将新鲜荔枝装载至无人机上。搭载着高精度定位系统的无人机在北斗+5G网络的支持和飞行控制平台的监控下，以厘米级精度飞行至1公里外的冷链中心。抵达后，工人们迅速卸货、入库、预冷、打包、发车，确保荔枝果品以最佳状态发往全国市场。

平山镇作为高州荔枝核心产区之一，其荔枝以果头大、甜度高、上市时间早等优势常年抢占早熟市场，但丘陵地形导致传统运输方式效率低、损耗高，果品价格和品质易受影响。随着科技的飞速发展，低空经济领域的无人机技术展现出快速配送、灵活路径选择的独特优势。

据介绍，运送同样重量的荔枝鲜果，传统的人力运输从山上运到山脚再运到冷库，每斤鲜果运输成本约0.4元。而无人机运输可直接将鲜果从山上运到冷库，运输成本降至每斤约0.15元，降幅达62.5%。

文、图 | 记者 全良波 通讯员 赖绮航 罗达意 林锋 徐品胜
视频 | 全良波 周敬雅
剪辑 | 温泽广
译 | 杨钧雅
英文审校 | 林佳岱