Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.3 Lychee production.
Country
Year
Area (ha)
Tonnage (MT)
Reference
Australia
1999
1 500
5 000
Menzel 2002
Bangladesh
1999
4 750
13 000
Menzel 2002
China
1999
580 000
1 260 000
Menzel 2002
India
1998
56 000
429 000
Ghosh 2001
Madagascar
1994
8 000
Fintrac 1994
Nepal
1999
3 000
14 000
Menzel 2002
Taiwan
1999
12 000
110 000
Menzel 2002
Thailand
2000
23 000
80 000
Menzel 2002,
Mitra 2002
USA
1998
1 045
Mossler &
Nesheim 2002
Viet Nam
1999
30 000
50 000
Menzel 2002
Hong Kong and Singapore are major international
markets and receive about 12 000 to 15 000 MT of lychee
from China and Taiwan during June-July. Taiwan exported
about 5900 MT in 1999; the main destinations were
Philippines (1735 MT), United States (1191 MT), Japan
(933 MT), Canada (930 MT), Thailand (489 MT) and
Singapore (408 MT) (Mitra 2002). The total world trade in
lychee is about 100 000 MT (Menzel 2002). European
markets take about 20 000 MT of fresh lychee of which
nearly 50% was imported by France alone and the rest
mainly by Germany and the UK, an increasing market
(McNeil 1997). The market is especially buoyant between
Christmas and New Year with Madagascar (80%) and
South Africa (12.6%) as the main suppliers (Mitra 2002).
In the Asian region, Australia exports about 25-30% of
its total production. Other lychee growing countries in this
region export much smaller amounts, typically 0.2-5.5%.
The main reason is that all these countries have good
domestic markets and lack proper cool-chain and other
exporting facilities. Nonetheless, small quantities are
frozen and canned (about 2500 MT in China and 500 MT
in Taiwan) and exported to Japan, United States, Canada,
Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Australia. About one
third of the total production of China (300 000 MT) was
dried in 1999 as lychee nut, for domestic and local export
(Mitra 2002).
with 5-80 fruit per inflorescence (Mitra 2002). These are
covered with tubercles as part of a leathery rind or pericarp
that is pink or bright red in colour. The fruits are oval, heart
shaped or round and 2.5 to 4 cm long, weighing about 20 g
(Cavaletto 1980). They mature about 100-110 days after
pollination. The edible portion is the aril which is translucent,
white, firm and juicy, and sweet flavoured. The seed inside
the aril varies considerably in size; the most desirable varieties
having atrophied seeds described as 'chicken tongue', caused
by faulty pollination (Morton 1987). A  distinction is also
made between desirable fruit that remains 'dry and clean'
when the skin is broken, as against those types that leak juice
when the skin is breached (Anon. 1996).
Fruit maturity
During maturation, fruits undergo colour changes from
green to yellow green to dark red to bright red 7-10 days
later. Bright red fruits are overripe. In China, the recom-
mendation is to harvest when the pericarp is about 80%
red (Huang 2002).
Maturing lychee have increasing concentrations of
sugars such as sucrose, glucose and fructose and decreas-
ing concentrations of organic acids, mainly malic acid. The
aril should be sweet and translucent with a Brix level about
17° (Fintrac 1992). During ripening the acid content
decreases, from 5.5% to 0.5%, and sugars increase from
10% to 17%. Acid contents need to be within a fairly
narrow range for good palatability. Thus, acid contents of
0.9% give a sour taste to the fruit but lychee with acid
levels below 0.4% are bland because of the imbalance
between sugar and acid (Fintrac 1992).
Titratable acidity (TA) is the best guide to maturity;
alternatively, the ratio of total soluble solids (TSS,
Fruit development
For best flowering lychee needs seasonal temperature
fluctuations, with winter chilling (100-200 hours at 0°C
to 10°C) to initiate flower bud development and warm humid
summers for flower and fruit formation (Anon. 1996). After
insect pollination, trees produce clusters of small round fruit
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