"As soon as the concubine laughs on the red dust, no one knows that it is a lychee!" I believe everyone is no stranger to Du Mu's poem, and it is Yang Guifei's love for lychees that makes lychees endowed with delicate and delicious attributes.
It stands to reason that today's cultivation industry is very developed, and the mainland has long realized the freedom of lychees. But who would have thought that lychees in 2024 are destined to be exclusive to nobles, and without the freedom of lychees, many netizens complained that they could only eat durian.
However, a new piece of good news is coming, the lychee that has been sleeping for 10 months is about to be thawed and put on the market, which may be able to change the "freedom of lychee".
01, lychee is so expensive that it hurts
In Hangzhou Gouzhuang Fruit Market, rows of lychee stalls have been placed in the fruit area, because they are freshly marketed fruits, attracting many fruit merchants to come to buy.
A stall gave a quotation, with a minimum of 170 yuan for a 5-kilogram pack of lychees, and 190 yuan for a good quality one. But even so, the trading volume is still not too much, and only a few hundred cases a day can be sold, whereas in the past it was normal to have more than 1,000 cases a day.
A wholesaler said frankly that the price of lychees this year is relatively expensive, coupled with the postponement of the maturity period this year, it will take half a month to market in large quantities, so the price is relatively expensive, while the price has dropped to more than 20 yuan in the same period last year, but this year it is around 50 yuan.
There are still 10 days for lychees in the Yunnan market to be listed, but the reporter visited the Kunming fruit wholesale market and found that the price of lychees has risen by 20-30%, and the average wholesale price is 48-55 yuan/kg.
Some wholesalers said frankly that last year, a box of lychees was 300 yuan, but this year it has risen directly to 400 yuan a box, which is 100 yuan more expensive than last year, mainly because the output of lychees is low, and the price is relatively expensive because it has not been centrally listed.
In the Beijing Xinfadi market, the price of the concubine smile is not cheap, at present, a box of 3 catties is sold for 110 yuan, and a catty is 37 yuan, which is still a wholesale price, and it will only be more expensive to sell it to the market.
In Guangxi, the main producing area, I thought that the price of lychee could be cheaper, after all, in previous years, when the lychee was 10 yuan and 3 catties during the centralized listing period, the price was very cheap. But in the supermarket, the relatively small lychee is still sold for 20-28 yuan/catty, and if it is an osmanthus fragrant lychee, the price is 35-60 yuan/catty.
Xiaowen, a fruit eater, said frankly that she loves to eat lychees the most, and remembers that in June last year, lychees were only 5 yuan a catty. But this year, when Xiaowen came to the supermarket, she was stunned by the price of lychees in front of her.
A-level concubine Xiao sold it for 42.9 yuan per catty, ordinary ones were also sold for 30 yuan a catty, and small ones were also sold for 26.8 yuan, this price Xiaowen couldn't accept, so she could only wait for the price to be cheaper before buying.
Xiaoli, a citizen of Suzhou, bought 10 lychees, and found that the price was 15 yuan, although the price was expensive, but she had to endure it in order to try it.
Since it is so expensive offline, what is the price of lychee online? In Dingdong, Feizixiao has sold for 40 yuan/jin, Meituan has sold for 46.8 yuan/jin, and osmanthus fragrant lychees have been sold for 72 yuan/jin.
On Baiguoyuan, although the price is slightly cheaper, at 38.9 yuan a catty, it has long been robbed. As for Hema and Xianfeng, the price has also reached 40-60 yuan per catty, and it can be said that the price of lychee is so expensive that it hurts.
02, the freedom of lychee is gone, the weather is in trouble?
Lychee is mainly grown in the southern regions of the mainland, such as Liangguang, Yunnan, Fujian, and Hainan, while the production of lychees in Maoming, Guangdong Province has reached 25% of the country's total.
It stands to reason that in recent years, the planting area of lychee in the mainland has expanded, and its price has already dropped to 5-15 yuan a catty.
1. Lychee size and year factors
Lychee is a fruit that is greatly affected by the size of the year, overcapacity in the big year, the price is as low as 10 yuan and 2 catties, but the output will be reduced by about 20% in the small year, the market supply is in short supply, and the price begins to rise, rising to more than 20 yuan a catty.
From the autumn and winter of 2023 to the spring of 2024, it has experienced drought, rain, cold spring, and warm winter, which has greatly reduced the flowering rate of lychees, and the fruit-bearing rate is not satisfactory.
In addition, the cold spring in some areas has led to a significant reduction in production, and many producing areas have been affected.
2. Caused by heavy rain
In March and April every year, the Lingnan area will be full of lychee flowers, but although there are more flowers this year, there are very few female flowers that can bear fruit, mainly because the main producing areas have encountered continuous rainy weather during the flowering and fruiting period.
According to official statistics, the average rainfall in Guangdong province from April 4 to May 4 was as high as 572.8mm, which was three times that of the same period in previous years. Among them, the central and eastern parts of Guangdong reached 600-800mm, and the northern part of Guangdong was 1000-1498mm.
However, due to the continuous rainy days, insect activities weakened, and could not help lychees complete the pollination work, so that the pollination rate was greatly reduced.
For example, Lao Li, a grower in Guangzhou, said that this year's weather should be cold and not cold, so that lychees bloom early, and when it should be hot, it suddenly cools down, and the early drought suddenly rains violently, and the yield of lychees has decreased by more than 50%.
In Zhuyuan Village, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou, village cadres admitted that the red lychee fruit in March this year was not bad, and the output of the whole village was expected to be 300 tons, but the prolonged heavy rain caused serious damage to the fruit, reducing the yield by about 33%.
Industry insiders also found that the two Guangxi lychees were affected by the rain, and the late-maturing varieties were more affected, especially Guiwei and Xianjinfeng.
If the farmer Wang said that his own cinnamon lychee has fallen into 8 percent, this year's production is very serious, it is expected that in June, the price of cinnamon will rise 10 times, even then it will be "hard to find a fruit".
In the Liangguang area, many wholesalers have already heard the wind and bought out the picking and management rights of orchards in advance. Some industry insiders estimate that the price of cinnamon this year may reach 160-200 yuan/kg, which is 10 times more expensive than in the past.
03. The merchant said frankly: I dare not buy goods
Every year after the lychee goes on the market, many merchants will rush to buy it, seize the best listing period, and win the foodies' taste, but this year they dare not buy more.
Fang Fang, the owner of a fruit shop in Guangzhou, said that the price of lychees was 40 yuan a catty at the end of April, but 20 yuan a catty in the same period last year. Because the price is too high and the sales volume is not satisfactory, many people do not buy it after asking the price.
Fangfang said that last year, when lychees were the cheapest, they were 10 yuan and 2 catties, but this year, the price will not be reduced, mainly because the yield reduction is too serious.
Brother Liu, the boss of Hangzhou fruit, said that the price of lychees this year is too high, and he does not dare to buy them at all, for fear that he will not be able to sell them and smash them in his hands.
Sister Wang, the fruit owner of the same street, said that now the purchase price of lychees has reached 51 yuan a catty, which is too expensive to sell too easily, and she dare not buy it.
In a fruit store in Qingdao, osmanthus incense sells for 68 yuan / catty, and the concubine laughs at 78 yuan a catty, although the fruit is of good quality, big size, and sweet to eat, but it can't be sold at all, and the price will be lowered by 10 yuan in desperation, but the purchase cost is there, and it will not be sold at a significant price.
In contrast, many bosses have put durian in a conspicuous position to sell, just because the price of durian has dropped again and again this year.
Some netizens said frankly that they won't eat lychees this year if they don't bargain, after all, it's hard to earn money, and it's better to buy durian if you have that money, it's more cost-effective to eat this.
In the Gouzhuang fruit market, a boss said frankly that the retail price of Golden Pillow durian is only 28 yuan per catty, and if it is purchased by the box, a 30-pound box of fruit is only 600 yuan. Because of the low price, the owner said that he could sell several boxes a day.
Xuanxuan, a citizen born in the 90s, said that durian was sold for 60 yuan a catty during the Chinese New Year, but now it has dropped directly to more than 20 yuan, and the price is indeed too cheap, and she can finally afford to eat durian.
In a fruit shop in Hangzhou, the boss said that durian business is good these days, and more than 30 can be sold a day, and customers have reported that the fruit tastes good.
In a fruit store in Xianfeng, the promotional price of 4 catties of durian is 99 yuan, which attracted many customers to choose, and the inventory was sold out after a while.
04. 300 tons of frozen sleeping lychees will be listed
In the past two days, "Lychee Freedom" has rushed to the hot search, but at the same time, 300 tons of frozen sleeping lychees have also become a hot topic, so what is frozen sleeping lychees?
As the name suggests, these lychees are actually picked during the peak season last year, and through ultra-low temperature quick-freezing preservation technology, the lychee tissue cells quickly enter a dormant state.
If it is a conventional freezing technology, the cell wall of the lychee is destroyed when it is frozen, and the taste is unsatisfactory after thawing, and there is no appearance. However, after 5 years of research, the team of Professor Cao Yong of South China Agricultural University has broken through the cold and fresh technology of liquid nitrogen of lychee, so that the thawed lychee can maintain its original state to the greatest extent, and the cell retention rate can reach 80-90%, basically restoring the original taste.
In June 2023, Cao Yong's team hibernate 300 tons of lychees, and after 10 months, it is expected that these lychees will be thawed and marketed from June. And this year, they also plan to freeze 2,000 tons of lychees, so that consumers can eat lychees all year round.
Once this batch of frozen lychees is on the market, it will inevitably alleviate the shortage of the existing lychee market and also drive the price down.
But some netizens can't accept it, thinking that after such a long time, hasn't lychee become a "zombie fruit"? Lychee is so delicate, how can it maintain its original taste after 10 months of frozen sleep? Some netizens even questioned whether preservatives were added?
Some netizens bluntly said that the annual output of lychees in the mainland is more than 3 million tons, and 300 tons of frozen lychees is still too little, which cannot solve the problem of high prices of lychees in the market. On the contrary, will this batch of lychees be mixed with fresh lychees and sold at a high price?
It can be said that it is precisely because of everyone's incomprehension of the frozen sleeping lychee that it has led to complaints and doubts about it.
But don't worry, there are 7 major lychee producing areas in the mainland, and it is expected that in another 10 days, the varieties of lychee in the major producing areas will be listed one after another, and the price is expected to decline at that time, although it will not be cheaper than the same period in previous years, but at least cheaper than now, what do you think?