Longan belongs to the sapindaceae family and is also known as gueiyuan, yuanyen and longmu in Chinese. The shape of the fruit and the time it takes to ripen varies according to species. Good quality longan trees will yield large fruit with little moisture, high sugar content, and thick, crispy fruit flesh. Central and southern Taiwan is known for cultivating the most longan, and has outstanding yields. Dongshan District is also- an area of longan harvest. Some early maturing longan becomes available in the market from mid-July every year. Mid-August is the harvest period for longan with late maturing longan only becoming available in September.
The Dongshan District Farmers’ Association promotes dried longan made through an ancient method of kiln baking, which differs from machine processed products, and has at least 6 months of shelf life. The longan shell and shell powder are widely recognized by consumers for the excellent quality and texture.
Residents of Nanshi, Gaoyuan, Cingshan, Dongyuan, Nanshi, Shueiyun, and Linan living in the mountains build kilns along the hillsides to bake the longan picked using professional baking techniques, turning Dongshan District into the main harvest center for dried longan in Taiwan.
There are more than some 400 traditional kilns in this region and over 1,000 new baking machines. The annual harvest for longan flesh is about 1.5 million kilos with 900,000 kilos exported. The dried longan undergoes baked smoking to produce an aromatic flesh and texture, which can be consumed through direct small-pack sales. Dried longan flesh, also known as Gueiyuan flesh, must be removed by hands to go through sun-drying or baking processes before being put on the market. The process of removing the shell and pits can still not be carried out by any machine, hence it is common to see families sitting together removing the longan flesh and chatting at the same time during the summer harvest season.
To raise the awareness of industrial culture in Dongshan District and thereby increase the sales of local agricultural products and farmers’ incomes in response to the impact brought about by the WTO, in recent years, the Dongshan District Office has committed itself to promoting ‘Dongshan longan’ by integrating cultural resources with longan and coffee industries to boost the benefits of village leisure tourism in this district.