Editing Longan (section)

==Cultivation==

Currently, longan crops are grown in southern China, [[Taiwan]], northern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, the [[Philippines]],<ref name="TK Lim" /> [[Bangladesh]],<ref name="KhatunKarim2012">{{cite journal |last1=Khatun |first1=MM |last2=Karim |first2=MR |last3=Molla |first3=MM |last4=Khatun |first4=MM |last5=Rahman |first5=MJ |year=2012 |title=Study on the physico-chemical characteristics of longan (Euphoria longana) germplasm |journal=Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Research |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=441–447 |doi=10.3329/bjar.v37i3.12087 |issn=0258-7122 |doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Mauritius]], the United States, and Australia.<ref name="TK Lim" />

=== Growth ===
Longan, like its sister fruit lychee, thrives in humid areas or places with high rainfall, and can grow on most types of soil that does not induce issues with water drainage.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/9781845936723.0000 |title=Tropical fruits, Volume 1 |date=2011 |isbn=9781845936723 |editor-last=Paull |editor-first=R. E. |doi=10.1079/9781845936723.0000 |editor2-last=Duarte |editor2-first=O.}}</ref> Ample temperatures are also instrumental in longan growth: while longan can resist small stretches of cool temperatures, they can be damaged or killed in longer stretches of temperatures as high as −2 degrees Celsius. Younger plants tend to be more vulnerable to the cold than those more mature.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blancke |first=Rolf |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/9781501704284 |title=Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants of the World |date=2017-03-17 |isbn=9781501704284 |doi=10.7591/9781501704284}}</ref>

{{nutritional value
| name = Longans, raw
| image = Frutos Exóticos-LonganFruit-002.JPG
| caption = A peeled longan fruit
| kJ = 251
| water = 83 g
| protein = 1.31 g
| fat = 0.1 g
| carbs = 15.14 g
| fiber = 1.1 g
| sugars = n/a
| calcium_mg = 1
| iron_mg = 0.13
| magnesium_mg = 10
| phosphorus_mg = 21
| potassium_mg = 266
| sodium_mg = 0
| zinc_mg = 0.05
| manganese_mg = 0.052
| vitC_mg = 84
| thiamin_mg = 0.031
| riboflavin_mg = 0.14
| niacin_mg = 0.3
<!-- amino acids -->| threonine = 0.034 g
| isoleucine = 0.026 g
| leucine = 0.054 g
| lysine = 0.046 g
| methionine = 0.013 g
| phenylalanine = 0.030 g
| tyrosine = 0.025 g
| valine = 0.058 g
| arginine = 0.035 g
| histidine = 0.012 g
| alanine = 0.157 g
| aspartic acid = 0.126 g
| glutamic acid = 0.209 g
| glycine = 0.042 g
| proline = 0.042 g
| serine = 0.048 g
| source_usda = 1
| note = [https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169089/nutrients Link to USDA Database entry]
}}
=== Harvest ===
During harvest, pickers must climb ladders to carefully remove branches of fruit from longan trees. Longan fruit remain fresher if still attached to the branch, so efforts are made to prevent the fruit from detaching too early. Mechanical picking would damage the delicate skin of the fruit, so the preferred method is to harvest by hand. Knives and scissors are the most commonly used tools.<ref name="Muhammad Siddiq2">{{Cite book |last=Siddiq |first=Muhammad |title=Tropical and Subtropical Fruits: Postharvest Physiology, Processing and Packaging |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2012 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Fruit is picked early in the day to minimize water loss and to prevent high heat exposure, which would be damaging. The fruit is then placed into either plastic crates or bamboo baskets and taken to packaging houses, where the fruit undergo a series of checks for quality. The packaging houses are well-ventilated and shaded to prevent further decay. The process of checking and sorting are performed by workers instead of machinery. Any fruit that is split, under-ripe, or decaying is disposed of. The remaining healthy fruit is then prepared and shipped to markets.<ref name="BPU2">{{Cite book |last1=Menzel |first1=C. |title=Litchi and Longan: Botany, Production and Uses |last2=Waite |first2=G.K. |last3=Mitra |first3=S.K. |publisher=CAB International |year=2005 |isbn=9781845930226 |via=ProQuest ebrary}}</ref>

Many companies add preservatives to canned longan. Regulations control the preserving process. The only known preservative added to canned longan is [[sulfur dioxide]], to prevent discoloration.<ref name="BPU2" /> Fresh longan that is shipped worldwide is exposed to sulfur [[fumigation]]. Tests have shown that sulfur residues remain on the fruit skin, branches, and leaves for a few weeks. This violates many countries' limits on fumigation residue, and efforts have been made to reduce this amount.<ref name="BPU2" />

=== Distribution ===
Longan is found commonly in most of Asia, primarily in mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. China, the main longan-producing country in the world, produced about {{convert|1.9|e6MT|e6ST|abbr=off}} of longan in 2015–2017, accounting for 70% of the world's longan production and more than 50% of the world's longan plots.<ref>Luo, Jun, Can-fang Zhou, and Zhong Wan. "Analysis on the development status of lychee industry in Guangdong province in 2010." Guangdong Agric Sci 4 (2011): 16-8.</ref> Vietnam and Thailand produced around {{convert|500 and 980|e3MT|e3ST|abbr=off}}, respectively.<ref>{{cite web |last=Altendorf |first=Sabine |date=July 2018 |title=MINOR TROPICAL FRUITS Mainstreaming a niche market |url=http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/est/COMM_MARKETS_MONITORING/Tropical_Fruits/Documents/Minor_Tropical_Fruits_FoodOutlook_1_2018.pdf |access-date=9 September 2020 |publisher=[[FAO]]}}</ref> Like Vietnam, Thailand's economy relies heavily on the cultivation and shipments of longan as well as lychee. This increase in the production of longan reflects recent interest in exotic fruits in other parts of the world. However, the majority of the demand comes from Asian communities in North America, Europe and Australia.<ref name="BPU2" />

===Yield ===
While longan yields average out to 2 to 5 tonnes per hectare, there have been observed yields of up to 19.5 tonnes per ha in [[Israel]].<ref>{{Citation |last1=Lora |first1=Jorge |title=Genetics and Breeding of Fruit Crops in the Sapindaceae Family: Lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) and Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) |date=2018 |work=Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Fruits |pages=953–973 |editor-last=Al-Khayri |editor-first=Jameel M. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-91944-7_23 |access-date=2022-10-05 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-91944-7_23 |isbn=978-3-319-91943-0 |last2=Pham |first2=Van The |last3=Hormaza |first3=José I. |editor2-last=Jain |editor2-first=Shri Mohan |editor3-last=Johnson |editor3-first=Dennis V.}}</ref>

Advancements in [[selective breeding]] have allowed scientists to find a strain of longan containing a "high proportion of aborted seeds" at the end of a thirty-year breeding program in 2001.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=J.S. |last2=Xu |first2=X.D. |last3=Zheng |first3=S.Q. |last4=Xu |first4=J.H. |date=August 2001 |title=Selection for Aborted-Seeded Longan Cultivars |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2001.558.14 |journal=Acta Horticulturae |issue=558 |pages=115–118 |doi=10.17660/actahortic.2001.558.14 |issn=0567-7572}}</ref> Studies in 2015 that aimed to aid longan breeding efforts discovered that −20 degrees Celsius is the optimal temperature for long-term storage of longan pollen, a key ingredient in enabling longan breeding programs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pham |first1=V.T. |last2=Herrero |first2=M. |last3=Hormaza |first3=J.I. |date=December 2015 |title=Effect of temperature on pollen germination and pollen tube growth in longan ( Dimocarpus longan Lour.) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2015.10.007 |journal=Scientia Horticulturae |volume=197 |pages=470–475 |doi=10.1016/j.scienta.2015.10.007 |bibcode=2015ScHor.197..470P |issn=0304-4238 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10261/127752}}</ref>