Yunnan Coffee and Fine Coffee-- Analysis of production problems

During this short two-week trip to Yunnan, although I only visited the coffee growing and processing base of Pu'er Menglian and some areas of Baoshan, I also found many problems in production and processing. Although it is inevitable to cover all of them, I still sum up these problems. I hope that more coffee lovers will pay attention to Yunnan coffee. After all, the development of Yunnan coffee depends not only on the hard work of local coffee farmers. All aspects of information, technical and channel support are also very needed.

At present, Yunnan coffee production is mainly distributed in Pu'er (180000 mu), Baoshan (100000 mu), Dehong (120000 mu) and Lincang (20 mu). Most of them are catimor varieties. At present, more than 80% of them are used as raw materials for instant coffee processing, some are supplied to Nestl é, and some are exported to Europe and the United States by local traders. According to the grading standard of specialty coffee, the quality of Yunnan coffee is far from good enough.

From the perspective of geographical and climatic environment, Yunnan has a vast area of land is more suitable for growing coffee.

Climate of Pu'er City:

The climate of Pu'er City has three characteristics: low latitude, monsoon and vertical climate. Geographically, the south is close to the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, affected by the humid Indian Ocean monsoon, the towering Ailao Mountains and Wuliang Mountains in the east block the invasion of the cold current in Siberia, forming the main climatic characteristics of warm, humid and calm wind. The temperature difference between the coldest month and the hottest month is not obvious, so it is a real "spring-like" area. The annual average temperature is 15.3-20.2 ℃, the annual precipitation is 1000-2780mm, and the annual sunshine hours is 1873.9-2206.3 hours / year. The vertical height difference makes the vertical three-dimensional climate obvious, from low to high, there are many climate types, such as north subtropics, south temperate zone, temperate zone and so on. On the other hand, coffee cultivation is mainly distributed in the mountainous areas with an elevation of 800,000m above sea level.

Climate of Longyang District, Baoshan City:

Longyang District belongs to the southwest monsoon climate area and the subtropical plateau climate type. Three-dimensional climate is particularly obvious, there are "a mountain is divided into four seasons, ten miles of different days," said, rainy summer, winter drought, sunny and rainy day and night. The annual average temperature of Lujiangba, the main area of coffee cultivation in Longyang District, is 21.3℃, the average maximum temperature is 29.0℃, the average minimum temperature is 15.5℃, the extreme maximum temperature is 40.3℃, the extreme daily minimum temperature is 0.2℃, the annual precipitation is 747.6 mm, the annual sunshine hours are 2318.1 hours, the annual accumulated temperature of ≥ 10 ℃ activity is 7800.0 ℃, and the average annual frost-free days is 357days. The drought disaster in this kind of area is more prominent.

According to the analysis of climate factors, all aspects of Pu'er area are suitable for the growth of coffee except excessive precipitation in abnormal years, and drought is a threat factor in Lujiangba area of Baoshan.

Then, in addition to natural factors, the factors that affect coffee quality are the factors in the production and planting process, which mainly include the following:

First, the question of variety.

At present, catimor is the most widely planted in Yunnan, and a small amount of typica,bourbon is planted in Baoshan. Although they all belong to Arabica species on a large scale, these varieties are very different in nature.

Iron pickup typica: the most classic high-quality Arabica species, many commercial improvements are derived from this. It has excellent taste and is recognized as a boutique coffee variety, but its yield is very low and it is vulnerable to rust, so more manpower management is needed.

Bourbon bourbon: this variety is derived from the iron pickup and expanded after it was planted by the French on the island of Bourbon (Reunion) in 1708. Bourbon also has a beautiful aroma and rich flavor, which is higher in yield and growth than iron pickup trucks. It is suitable for planting in an area of 1200 million meters, but it is less resistant to diseases and insect pests and is more sensitive to strong winds and heavy precipitation.

Catimorkatimo: Cartimo is not pure Arabica, it is a hybrid of Timor (which belongs to Roberta) and caturra (a variety of bourbon), so catimor has 25% Roberta pedigree, and its Roberta pedigree also determines its taste defects: the aroma is not rich enough, and the overall taste is bitter, prone to astringency and more irritating mildew.

All the varieties planted in Pu'er area of Yunnan are catimor varieties. Typica and bourbon were introduced in Baoshan City as early as the 1950s, and the locals called them "old varieties". Because the old varieties have low disease and insect resistance and yield, and the management is relatively expensive and manpower, coupled with the market purchase price does not have many advantages, brown farmers have changed to a new variety catimor in recent years.

The defect of variety restricts the quality of coffee in the first place.

(coffee fruit dried to death by drought)

Second, the problem of planting.

High-quality coffee needs special careful management from various aspects, such as seedling raising, cultivation, fertilization, soil loosening, pruning, and so on. At present, coffee planting in Yunnan is still in a kind of extensive planting, and the plants are too dense. Coffee trees are not pruned in time, lack of water and fertilizer and other problems, especially in Baoshan this year, the beans produced by coffee trees without irrigation are obviously thin and dry.

(extensive processing in coffee processing plants)

Third, the problem of processing methods.

First of all, although picking is to pick ripe red fruit, but there is no strict standard, mixed with a lot of unripe beans, bad beans and so on.

In particular, in Baoshan area, because many brown farmers make their own processing, first, they cannot guarantee that the coffee fruits are picked and processed on the same day, and the coffee fruits picked and stacked for many days are processed together. Many of the fruits are rotten during processing, and the processed coffee beans cannot be dried immediately. Drying is mostly on cement or mud soil, which is easy to be mixed with a lot of sundries. This can easily cause damp and moldy coffee beans and absorb peculiar smell.

(coffee fruits to be processed are piled up in the yard of brown farmers.)

The problems existing in these three links alone have caused restrictive factors in the production of high-quality coffee, and every link in the whole process of making high-quality coffee from a seed to a cup of coffee can not be ignored. Yunnan coffee, there are still a lot of improvements.

Throughout the history of coffee production in Yunnan, coffee has been introduced into Yunnan for a hundred years. Baoshan has been planted on a large scale since the 1950s, while Pu'er began in the 1980s. However, the reason why the output and quality has been improving slowly over the years, but has not formed a large-scale boutique coffee, the main reasons may be in the following aspects:

First, there is no corresponding coffee culture basis.

China is a big tea-drinking country. Yunnan, which produces coffee as well as tea, now mainly drinks tea, but the consumption of coffee is almost zero. Many coffee farmers grow coffee but do not know how their beans are processed into coffee. Unlike the coffee farmers in African-American countries who make their own coffee with fried beans in a pan, it is funny to hear that coffee is not good for your health. Interferes with sleep. Coffee farmers do not understand coffee, buyers do not understand coffee, and even local processing roasters put aside coffee culture to do coffee processing trade.

Second, there is no corresponding appropriate technology.

Coffee industry is not a mature industry in China, but as a cash crop, it needs corresponding technical support. Although the government has also provided some support, there are still many deficiencies in popularizing coffee planting technology. Many farmers do not know how to fertilize, irrigate and prune coffee trees properly. Although the corresponding agricultural research institutes have been doing research, they do not even know that no matter how good the catimor is, no matter how big the output is, it is excluded from the category of fine coffee.

Third, there is no mature and stable market demand.

At present, most of Yunnan coffee is exported as instant coffee material, and only ordinary quality beans are supplied as a single product of roasted beans. There is market demand to stimulate production, but for Yunnan boutique coffee demand, there is no corresponding domestic market at present. When the coffee consumption field does not have a clear understanding of fine coffee and does not have a basic demand, how can it be in line with the market law to expect the supplier to provide such a supply?

Fourth, there is no scientific quality evaluation system. At present, for Yunnan coffee, whether it is brown farmers, raw bean buyers, the government, coffee roasters or relevant research institutions, there is no unified standard or even no standard for coffee quality evaluation. As for a series of testing and cup evaluation systems of fine coffee from raw beans to roasted beans, there is a great difference. When we do not even have a standard to measure quality, how can we implement the so-called pursuit of quality?

The above factors are existing and may exist for a long time in the future. Perhaps with the development of the market and the dissemination of external information, it will promote the change of some subjective and objective factors, but this requires multi-party efforts.

During my two-week coffee trip to Yunnan, this is what I saw about Yunnan coffee from a coffee man's point of view, and what I put forward was only a personal point of view, some of which may not be objective and comprehensive enough. As a coffee maker, I have deep feelings for the land of Yunnan and these kind-hearted people. I also hope that this land can really grow its own boutique coffee and go to China to become the world's boutique coffee, but its power is limited. What I can do is to collect more relevant information, hoping to provide a little help to people in need.