The 2020 China Lychee Industry Conference kicks off in Maoming, Guangdong province on May 20. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2020 China Lychee Industry Conference kicked off in Maoming, Guangdong province on May 20, with lychee experts, enterprise representatives, and large lychee planters from all around the country attending the conference.

The event was organized by the South Asia Tropical Crop Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as well as the Maoming municipal government. It has been held four times, with the first one in Beiliu, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in 2017, the second one in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, in 2018, and the third one in Fuling, Chongqing in 2019.

A national lychee industry achievement exhibition, a lychee industry summit, and a high quality lychee competition were also carried out during the event.

Lychees originate in China and have been cultivated for more than 2,300 years in the country. China ranks first in lychee planting area and yield in the world, while Guangdong is the province in China with the largest lychee cultivation area and production.

Guangdong boasts a lychee plantation area of about 4 million mu (266,667 hectares) and a yearly production of nearly 1.5 million metric tons, both accounting for more than half of the country's total and one third of the world's total.

Maoming is the largest lychee production base both in Guangdong and China. It currently has a lychee cultivation area of more than 1.35 million mu, with an annual output value of 5.2 billion yuan ($732.35 million).

In recent years, the city has carried out a series of measures like advancing scientific innovation and creating brands to promote the transformation and upgrading of its lychee industry, as well as develop diversified lychee products to help rural revitalization.