Lychees: an exotic fruit that provides a lifeline for Madagascar

Our growing taste for exotic fruits is helping to promote much-needed investment in Madagascar's rural economy

The jewel in any fruit bowl, lychees are often seen as a luxury or festive treat by consumers. Almost 6,000 miles away in Madagascar, however, they play a very different role as the lifeblood to a rural and desperately poor farming community, whose reliance on the industry is often year-round and whose lives are far from luxurious.

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, and its undeveloped logistics and infrastructure means it is unable to make the most of its agriculture sector. Alongside vanilla, cloves and pepper, lychees are one of the country's few valuable exports, and the sector provides a vital income to around 30,000 families, a figure that rises during harvest time.