Xi Story: Lychee industry brings wealth to villagers in Guangdong

GUANGZHOU - Lin Changzhen, director of the agricultural innovation park in Baiqiao Village in the city of Maoming, south China's Guangdong Province, introduced several processed lychee products to visitors at a longan and lychee cooperative.

"At present, the output value of agricultural products processing in our village totals 100 million yuan (about $14.58 million) a year. This has created more than 3,000 jobs, and the annual per capita income of the villagers has exceeded 50,000 yuan," Lin said.

Maoming is China's largest lychee production base, with a planting area of approximately 1.39 million mu (about 92,667 hectares) and an annual output that accounts for roughly one quarter of the country's total.

Baiqiao Village which has about 6,800 mu of lychee plantation is a professional lychee production village.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Tuesday inspected the Baiqiao Village in Genzi Township in Maoming.

Xi walked into a lychee plantation, learned about local efforts to develop distinctive planting industry and cultural tourism, and had a cordial exchange with technicians. Then, he visited the Baiqiao longan and lychee cooperative and learned about the operation of the cooperative and its function in promoting rural revitalization.

Xi called for enhancing technologies used in lychee cultivation, preservation, and processing to boost the sector and culture-themed tourism.

He cordially said that he was very pleased to see the villagers living a wealthy life by developing lychee and other distinctive planting industries.

"With the lychee industry growing bigger and bigger, many young people have chosen to return to their hometowns to start businesses. Now, many local lychee brands are designed by young villagers," Lin said.

Lin said that during the season when lychees are about to hit the market, orders usually pour into Maoming from across the country. Lin's two sons are engaged in e-commerce trade in the village.

The roads in the village have been widened from four meters to eight meters, and the dirt roads have been upgraded to asphalt roads. A growing number of large trucks are driving into the village to purchase products, Lin added.

In the past, due to poor sales channels and limited infrastructure, it was difficult to sell lychees for a good price, said He Xia, the first Party secretary of Baiqiao Village.

Then, the village actively expanded sales channels such as e-commerce and live streaming, which help lychee farmers increase their income.

The perishable fruit also made it difficult to sell to buyers further away. To solve the problem, Baiqiao Village has cooperated with logistics enterprises and innovated cold chain logistics technology. "At present, we can ensure that our lychees sold in China are fresh," He said.

In recent years, lychees from Baiqiao Village have been very popular in the domestic market. In December 2021, a lychee and longan international purchasing and trading center was inaugurated in Genzi Township. The lychees from Baiqiao Village have been exported to Singapore, Australia and other countries.

"If lychees can be better preserved, the market will continue to expand in the future. Our goal is to sell our lychees to all over the world," He said.

Lyu Huaqiang, a senior agronomist at the agricultural science and technology affairs center in Gaozhou, carefully examined the growth of lychee and said, "We will make more efforts to further improve planting, preservation and processing technologies."

Today, Baiqiao Village has built a batch of warehousing and cold chain logistics and an agricultural innovation park. The whole village has developed fresh fruit processing, e-commerce, tourism and other forms of business. The lychee industry has become a big industry which increases the income and brings wealth to local villagers.

Villager He Jinming said nowadays, lychee sales channels are diverse and lychee quality has also improved. The annual income of villagers is increasing year by year. "Rural revitalization will drive faster and better rural development," he said.