Reporter Zeng Haicheng Correspondent Chen Min The most indispensable fruit in summer is lychee. In the orchard of Niulang Farm in Chishi Town, Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone, workers are busy picking, sorting and packing fresh lychee fruits in the past few days. It is now the season for lychees to go on the market in Shenzhen-Shantou area, but due to the recent rainy weather, and catching up with this year's "small year", the output of lychees in orchards has dropped a lot compared with last year.
It's the lychee picking season in Shenzhen.
Lychees are planted in villages such as Ebu Shuimei Village and Chishi Luokeng Village in the Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone, and Niulang Farm is the largest contiguous orchard in the local area. The orchard covers an area of about 500 acres, and the main lychee varieties are early-maturing Feizixiao, white sugar poppy, medium-ripening cinnamon, glutinous rice balls, etc., and the age of the fruit trees is about 30 years.
Bunches of lychees hang from the branches.
"This year's lychee harvest is greatly affected by the weather, especially the previous extreme weather such as heavy rainfall in turn, lychee flowering and fruit hanging are generally not ideal, especially the concubine laughs and reduces the yield the most." Cai Bo, the person in charge of the orchard, sighed helplessly. He explained that it had been raining in April this year, and the flowers of the lychee trees were washed away by the rain. In previous years, an average of two or three hundred quintals (about 100 catties per load) could be picked up by concubines, but this year it was basically out of harvest.
Workers sorting lychees.
At present, it is the time for a large number of white sugar poppies and cinnamon flavors to be on the market, and the orchard is busy, and workers are selecting lychees to load in baskets, and the bright red and plump lychees are mouth-watering. A worker told reporters that they got up at 6 o'clock in the morning to start picking, a total of four people, and they could pick five or six hundred catties a day. The fresh lychees will be sent to the Shenzhen market for centralized sales as soon as possible, and will be sold to Hong Kong when the production is high in previous years.
Li Jianfei, who lives in Luokeng Village, bought 50 catties of cinnamon in one go home and prepared to give it to relatives and friends. "There is a lot of rain this year, and the price of lychees in the market is generally more than 40 yuan per catty, and the good quality can even be sold for 70-80 yuan a catty," he said with a smile, saying that the "value" of lychees is really high.
According to the data provided by the District Bureau of Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Marine Fisheries, the total output of lychees in Shenzhen-Shantou in 2023 will be about 2,843 tons, with an output value of nearly 22.7869 million yuan. Although the output of lychees has decreased this year, the reduction in production has not reduced the harvest. The reporter learned from the orchard that last year's more than 30 yuan a catty of cinnamon, this year's price per catty rose to 45 yuan, despite the high price, the supply and sales are still booming.