Farmers in Manica province in central Mozambique are set to export 400 tonnes of organic lychees to the European Union market before the end of this year.
The fruit is being supplied by a combination of agricultural multinationals and family businesses, a government source said on Tuesday.
This year’s export represents an increase of 40 tonnes compared to last year, but the market could absorb another 6 000 tonnes of the fruit, the governor of Manica province, Francisca Tomas said at the launch of the lychee marketing campaign in Sussundenga, Manica province.
“We will continue to challenge for the title of one of the largest producers and exporters of lychee,” she said.
Francisca Tomas also remarked that some multinationals in the agricultural chain were promoting the production of seedlings and strengthening technical assistance through state extension agents, in search of greater quantities of higher quality lychees in future.
Governor Tomas also challenged partner companies and institutions linked to agricultural research to introduce new varieties of lychee and expand production to districts with favourable agro-ecological conditions.
Lychee production is currently concentrated in the districts of Manica, Sussundenga and Barue. Regions in the province with a cool climate, and therefore lychee production potential, such as Macate, Gondola and Mossurize, remain unexplored, she said.
In 2010, the Mozambican government, through the Institute for the Promotion of Exports (IPEX), signed an agreement with the Netherlands-based CBI –Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries, an organisation which supports the promotion of imports from developing countries to Europe.
Lychees are a tropical tree native to Southeast and Southwest regions of China, where cultivation is documented from the 11th century. China is the main producer of lychees, followed by Vietnam, India, other countries in Madagascar and South Africa. It is a tall evergreen tree; a lychee bears small fleshy fruits. The outside of the fruit is pink-red, roughly textured, and inedible, covering sweet flesh eaten in many different dessert dishes.
