Maoming has four ancient lychee gardens with long histories, of which Genzi Ancient Lychee Garden is home to 39 500-year-old lychee trees.

Genzi Ancient Lychee Garden. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

Maoming had been producing lychees since the late Qin (221-206 BC) and early Han (206 BC to AD 220) dynasties, with the fruit growing in Maoming for over 2,000 years.

Maoming's lychees. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

On May 2, the 2022 China Lychee and Longan Industry Conference was held in Maoming. In addition, the Guangdong Lingnan lychee planting system was released at the same time, which not only promoted the "Lingnan Litchi" brand, spread Lingnan agricultural culture to the world, but also contributed to the development of the Maoming lychee industry.

According to statistics, there are about 19,400 ancient lychee trees in Maoming that are more than 100 years old. Among them, a lychee tree in Luduan village, Maonan district is believed to be the oldest lychee tree in the world at 1,935 years old.

Genzi town has formed a lychee industrial chain in Yuanba, Baiqiao, Maopo village, and the surrounding areas, which integrates the functions of fruit purchasing and processing, warehousing and logistics, as well as sightseeing and tourism. As a result, Genzi town attracts more than 20 million tourists per year.

Maoming has also cooperated with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Zhejiang University to jointly plan the construction of a public brand in the Maoming lychee area, unifying Maoming lychee brands, logos, intellectual property images, publicity slogans, auxiliary graphics, and outer packaging design to further enhance the "Maoming lychee" brand image.