Editing Longan (section)

=== 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" />