Climatically Optimum Growth Areas Litchis Composite Of All Criteria

Litchis, Litchi chinensis, are indigenous to subtropical southern China and were first imported to South Africa from Mauritius in the 1870s (ARC, 2005). Of the 7 000 tons of litchis produced annually in South Africa, with a gross value exceeding R25 million, about 60 percent come from Mpumalanga, 38 percent from Limpopo and 2 percent from KwaZulu-Natal (Statistics SA, 2002; NDA, 2005).