Prices are approaching 100 yuan per jin! A production decrease is expected this year! Many people love to eat...

“New Rich Fruits” Roll Out Fresh Stock in Turns

Recently, media outlets have noticed that

The first batch of lychees

is becoming one of the

representatives of the

more expensive fruits

on e-commerce platforms

With a short selling window and relatively low production,

lychee prices

on e-commerce platforms

often exceed 60 yuan per jin

Some lychees

have even sold for

nearly 100 yuan per jin

The reporter checked e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo and found that, as April arrived, the first batch of fragrant osmanthus lychees is being rolled out.

Many consumers are willing to pay high prices just to sample the fruit first. Data on Pinduoduo shows that a jin of Hainan fragrant osmanthus lychees is priced at 78.8 yuan, and 247 items have been bought. The Taobao page shows that a high-quality, 2-jin pack of fragrant osmanthus lychees can cost up to 164 yuan, equivalent to 82 yuan per jin, with sales already reaching 1000+ units. On the Xiaohongshu platform, some merchants have posted links saying, “Premium guilin-fragrant lychees only sell for 10 days.” The page information shows a “delivered-to-hand” price of 98.9 yuan per jin, 7 units sold so far, and it has now been delisted.

Lychee production has “big year” and “small year” cycles. In 2025, it is a big year for lychees. With abundant supply, the “Feizi Xia” lychee has been sold in many places for 10 yuan for two pounds—an “affordable cabbage price.” The Lychee King price is around 25 yuan per jin, and fragrant varieties like “Guiwei” once fell to below 20 yuan.

And according to agricultural products trading platform “One Mu Field Agricultural Big Data,” it shows that currently, early-ripening lychees such as Hainan fragrant osmanthus are already being sold by merchants, and the purchase price at the origin is already around 60 yuan per jin.

The industry generally predicts

This year will be a “small year” for lychees

Xu Lifeng, a researcher at the One Mu Field Industrial Research Institute, analyzed for reporters: based on the lychee production cycle in previous years, lychees in 2026 are expected to be in the “small year” stage. Currently, the rate of successful bud formation has dropped noticeably. This is mainly because the “super big year” production volume in 2025 hit a historical high, causing the trees to run down their nutrients, and combined with climate factors in major producing areas such as Guangdong experiencing warm winters in 2025–2026, it affects flower-bud differentiation. It is expected that lychee varieties such as Guiwei, Nuomici (sticky rice mango), and Feizi Xia will all see to some degree reduced yields.

Xu Lifeng said that a reduction in lychee output will inevitably lead to price increases, and the exact extent of the rise depends on subsequent conditions such as fruit set. Taking the Guangdong producing areas as an example: starting in April, lychees from various regions are expected to begin hitting the market. When the high-quality Guiwei lychees in Maoming last year were just on sale, their price was above 80 yuan; this year, it is expected to be even higher.

Reporters noticed that with the rapid changes in fruit prices, e-commerce platforms are also diversifying their sales approaches for fruits, targeting consumers’ expectations of price changes.

“Presale” lychees appeared on a certain e-commerce platform. A lychee grower posted a presale link for Lychee King. Although the Lychee King is expected to be available starting in early June, the merchant has already listed a price of 148 yuan for 5 jin—about 30 yuan per jin. The merchant said that consumers who place an order can lock in this price, unaffected by increases in market prices; if the market price drops, they can return the goods. Page information shows that 132 people have indicated they “want” it.

At the same time, the reporter found that frozen lychees from last year are still selling hot on e-commerce platforms. A product link shows that a 2-jin pack of frozen lychees costs 28.8 yuan. The merchant claims these are lychees preserved using rapid freezing technology. Although many consumers commented that the taste is not great, they still “made up the price gap” by leveraging the “off-season,” which continues to attract many lychee lovers to place orders. The page information shows that more than 10,000 units have been sold so far.

Netizens: It will be hard to have “lychee freedom” this year

Regarding the news that lychees will see a major drop in output,

some netizens immediately said,

“Lychee freedom will be hard this year”

Others also said

“I ate too many last year; this year I’ll take a break”

And some netizens said

“Looking forward to next year’s lychees—

they can give a little, take a little; let’s get more next year”

Massive information, precise analysis—available on Sina Finance APP