"Due to e-commerce and express delivery services, I haven't worried about lychee sales in recent years," says Feng Jianhao, a lychee farm owner from Maoming. "Before, lychees were mainly sold in the Pearl River Delta region, but now they are sold all over the country."

Prior to 2013, Maoming lychees were sold through traditional channels due to problems with preserving the fruit.

In 2013, SF Express tried to sell lychees via e-commerce by cooperating with the Maoming municipal government and the local leading e-commerce platforms. The company earned more than 3 million yuan ($469,767) in lychee freight revenue. In 2014, its freight revenue from lychees increased by over 200 percent year-on-year to 12.4 million yuan.

The local lychee leading e-commerce platforms established their own distribution centers, which function as platforms and markets, and help with logistics, warehousing and e-commerce. Over the years, with the development of the internet and the popularity of livestreaming, e-commerce sales began to account for more and more of the total lychee sales in Maoming.

In 2020, the sales volume of Maoming lychees reached 520,000 metric tons, with a total sales value of 6.92 billion yuan, up 35 percent year-on-year.

The Maoming (International) Lychee Trading Center and the China (Guangdong) Lychee Industry Big Data Center were set up in the city in May, with the aim of making big data the new engine of the lychee industry and accelerating the industry's digital progress.

Being the first of its kind in China, the China (Guangdong) Lychee Industry Big Data Center will collect and apply data in lychee production, sales, logistics and industry.

Maoming is the largest lychee production area in the world. It currently boasts a lychee planting area of nearly 1.36 million mu (90,666.67 hectares), accounting for about half of that in Guangdong, one-fourth of that in the country, and one-fifth of that in the world. It is expected to achieve a lychee output of more than 600,000 metric tons this year.