Lychee is an important subtropical characteristic fruit in our country. It has a unique flavor and high nutritional value and commercial value. However, the lychee fruit is extremely resistant to storage and transportation. This characteristic has always been a big problem for fruit farmers and experts. How to keep lychees fresh for longer, transport them to farther markets, and make consumers feel at ease. This is Wu Zhenxian (currently deputy dean of the College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, post-harvest processing and preservation post expert of the National Litchi and Longan Industrial Technology System) The goal that I have been pursuing.

  I have been studying lychees since 1992.When asked when the research on lychee started, Professor Wu Zhenxian said with emotion: My hometown is in Putian, Fujian, where it is known as the Litchi City. The planting and production of litchi in Putian has a history of more than a thousand years. Litchi everywhere in Licheng describes the grand occasion of Putian lychee production. However, in the past, local lychees could only be sold nearby, and could not be shipped to markets a little further away. In the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, with the continuous increase in the production of lychee, the income of fruit farmers did not increase with it. The reason is that the lychee is not resistant to storage and the transportation is inconvenient. The loss on the transportation road is huge, which seriously affects the sales and benefits of litchi.Wu Zhenxian did not hesitate to continue to be a student farmer when he was recommended to study for a master's degree when he graduated from a bachelor's degree. While studying as a graduate student at South China Agricultural University, Wu Zhenxian, under the influence of his supervisor, Associate Professor Su Meixia, strengthened his research on post-harvest lychee preservation, and also forged an indissoluble bond with lychees.This is all thanks to the solid foundation laid by the older generation of professors!

  In the 1960s, Mr. Li Peiwen, an old professor of the College of Horticulture, began to lead the team to take the lead in researching lychee preservation technology, focusing on the low-temperature storage and polyethylene bag packaging preservation technology of lychee, and put it into use in production. Short-term transportation and sales of litchi.In the early 1980s, Professor Chen Weixin took the lead in researching lychee storage and preservation technology, which further extended the preservation time of lychees that were difficult to store and transport.Since most of the links from picking to post-harvest processing, transportation and sales of lychee are carried out separately, the entire cold chain is very incomplete, and the popularity of lychee preservation technology in production is low and it has failed to achieve the desired effect. In 1998, the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau invited the whole society to bid for the Litchi Storage, Transportation and Preservation Engineering Technology Development. Chen Weixin, Su Meixia, Wu Zhenxian and other teams were fortunate to get the project through bidding competition, and began a two-year research and application implementation. . It was really hard at the time!In order to successfully complete the various indicators of the bidding project, Wu Zhenxian and other teams went to the Guangzhou Conghua Litchi Base for the implementation and application of the project. The food and lodging were all in the base, and they went out early and returned late. They finally completed the project requirements successfully in 1999, using lychees. The low-temperature preservation technology has completed the storage of 100 tons of lychee for one month. With the support of the project technology, the cooperative enterprise newly established Guangzhou Conghua Hualong Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Co., Ltd. to specialize in fruit and vegetable preservation and marketing. Brand, the scale of the company continues to grow, and has been rated as Provincial Leading Enterprise, National High-tech Enterprise and so on.Seeking to know: the road is long and long, I will search up and downThanks to the exploration of generations of predecessors, in 2001, the “Research and Development of Engineering Technology for Fruits and Vegetables Postharvest Processing, Storage, Transportation and Preservation” with lychee preservation technology as one of the core contents won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. It is the first national award won in this professional field! In 2003, the Litchi Storage, Transportation and Fresh-keeping Supporting Technology Promotion project won the first prize of the National Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fishery Harvest Award.With the development of the litchi industry, some companies are eager to open up foreign markets and carry out the export trade of litchi. However, different countries have different requirements for quarantine and treatment of exported fruits, which restricts the export of litchi. In order to further expand the sales of lychees and allow other countries in the world to eat our country’s fresh and delicious lychee fruits, teachers such as Wu Zhenxian, Ji Zuoliang and other teachers began to lead the team to develop lychee export cold processing and preservation technology. After the team’s efforts, the project was completed in 2004. Technology, and cooperated with enterprises to start the practice of exporting lychees to the United States.In the first few years of promotion, Wu Zhenxian’s team successively guided more than a dozen foreign trade companies to carry out the application of litchi exports to Europe and the United States, and achieved significant economic and social benefits. Not only did the export company obtain considerable benefits, but also the fruit farmers increased their income and improved The production technology level of litchi fruit. In 2008, this achievement won the second prize of Guangdong Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2014, the achievement of Key Technology Innovation and Application of Efficient Litchi Production, which took this technology as an important part, won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2013, Litchi Efficient and Safe Production theory and key technology system research and industrial application won the first prize of Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Among the export enterprises under the guidance, some cooperative enterprises continue to develop and grow relying on the export technology, such as Foshan Fuyi Agricultural Products Co., Ltd., Dianbaize Fengyuan Agricultural Products Co., Ltd., etc., which have become outstanding lychee export enterprises. These companies formed the Zhongli Group in 2019 to further expand and regulate the export market of lychee, and successfully realized the lychee's freeze age after the sea.

Group photo of Wu Zhenxian and Fuyi Agricultural Products of Zhongli Group, a litchi export company.

  Wu Zhenxian instructs the production of Fuyi Agricultural Products of Zhongli GroupIt's like falling asleep and waking up again when we landed. Teacher Luo Tao of the team said with a smile.With the development of the e-commerce era, Wu Zhenxian's team has also developed logistics preservation technologies that match the needs of different e-commerce companies. While meeting the needs of businesses, more consumers can taste fresh and delicious lychees.Love of agriculture: Perseverance and determinationWhat is your plan in the future?Wu Zhenxian did not hesitate to talk about “we should continue to make lychees to keep fresh after harvest, and there are still many things that need to be studied and perfected.” In Wu Zhenxian’s future plans, he hopes to build a set of lychee fruit storage evaluation system, through some simple Indicators can evaluate the storage period of different varieties and different sources of litchi, provide guidance for its subsequent storage, transportation, sales, and utilization, and reduce losses.The research of precise preservation technology parameters is also the direction of future efforts, and the corresponding preservation technology can be accurately adopted for different varieties to better maintain their quality. In addition, the mechanism of the formation of lychee fruit quality before harvesting and the deterioration of its postharvest quality is still not fully understood, and a lot of effort is needed to in-depth research to provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of lychee preservation technology.

Wu Zhenxian went to the base of Jijutianyuan Company in YangchunInvestigate and carry out technical guidance and cooperation on post-harvest preservation of Siji lemons.

  Wu Zhenxian went to Guangxi Guilongxiang Agricultural Trade Logistics Industrial Park for guidanceIt's really not easy to look back this way, but it's worth it!Even after 28 years of research on lychee preservation technology, Wu Zhenxian still feels that “the road ahead is still very long.” In the face of fruit farmers and enterprises, it is necessary to coordinate the interests of both parties and ensure the effectiveness of technology application. The psychological pressure is actually Very big. At the beginning of technology promotion, many fruit farmers and enterprises were still skeptical, so how to further guide and promote it is also a problem that the team needs to overcome.In the future, it will continue. Then, our journey is still going on.Attachment: Introduction of Professor Wu Zhenxian's Team The litchi post-harvest processing and preservation team currently has 4 professors, 2 associate professors, 1 lecturer, 3 doctors, and more than 10 masters. Has presided over or participated in more than 10 national, provincial and ministerial-level projects, won 8 scientific and technological awards above the provincial level, obtained more than 20 authorized patents, edited and participated in the editing of 15 various books, and published more than 80 papers .