About 90 percent of the villages and towns and 80 percent of the farmers in Maoming grow lychees. The number of lychees produced in Maoming accounts for about half of Guangdong province's total, and one-fourth of China's total. Recently, Maoming has developed technology to extend the freshness of its lychees.

Staff workers in Field Genebank for Lychees do experiments to elongate the freshness of lychees. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

The Field Genebank for Lychees and the Maoming branch of the Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Guangdong Provincial Laboratory are continuously attracting talents working in scientific research.

Researchers in Maoming have been conducting research on the key links of preservation. By focusing on pre-cooling, bacteriological inhibition, and packaging, lychees can be kept fresh and sold for longer periods of time.

At present, Maoming mainly uses Chinese herbal medicine, probiotics and new preservation materials technologies to keep its lychees fresh. A new type of preservation liquid to keep the lychees fresh has been made with Chinese herbal medicine that has both bactericidal and antioxidant effects.

Physical preservation technology using electron beam irradiation can quickly, evenly and deeply penetrate the lychees, without radioactive residue. It sterilizes the lychees thoroughly, and does not destroy any nutrients.

Research shows that anaerobic probiotics preservation technology forms an oxygen-free microenvironment on the surface of fruit, which keeps the lychees fresh after harvest.

"After soaking in Chinese herbs, a batch of Fezixiao lychees was stored at low temperature for 20 days and another batch was stored at room temperature for five days. Both batches scored 100 on the good fruit rating," said Shen Fei, an experimental worker from the agricultural science and technology extension center of the Maoming bureau of agriculture and rural affairs.