The owners of lychee trees, however, had tons of issues. It's such a loved fruit that if you had such a tree, it was pretty much guaranteed that praedial thieves would strike. It got so bad that I remember one nurse in the community cutting down her tree when the sight of strange men roaming her yard became too much.
What the parent says is about people eating mostly or just lychees -- out of poverty etc. Not the general "I eat lots of X".
No, litchi orchards are usually sold well before they ripe and people protect it. So most of the litchi is consumed after it's ripe and from the market unless someone has their own orchard.