Coffee in China Coffee fragrance in Yunnan (photo)

Text / Li Li

Jinghong's Banna amorous feelings, Pu'er 's ancient tea-horse road. Make many people yearn for the south of colorful clouds. Now there are large coffee fields, clusters of red coffee fruits hanging all over the branches, and the anecdote that a foreigner father and son have been working in shifts for more than 10 years in order to make the coffee smell farther away. The trip accompanied by listening to stories and enjoying the scenery is more memorable!

The son inherited his father's work to Pu'er.

The 1.94-meter-tall Belgian Wouter De

Smet), he always dances when it comes to coffee. As a senior agronomist stationed in Yunnan by Nestl é, he has been working in Pu'er for almost 10 years.

Born in 1975, Hute returned to university in Belgium after living in Africa with his parents for 18 years, and then went to work in Tanzania for three years after graduation. Hute's father was a senior coffee agronomist who worked in Africa for decades and came to Yunnan to help farmers grow coffee and impart his rich coffee knowledge to local farmers. Under the influence of his father, Huth has been familiar with coffee since childhood, from planting to primary processing. So, after his father retired, he followed his father's career and took his newly married wife to Pu'er, a small town in southwest China, where he had children. The family of four lived in Pu'er for a long time.

Mr. Coffee is popular.

Huth has devoted himself to the development of local coffee since he took office in 2005: what happened in the coffee field, what skills the farmers lacked, and what needs they had. He insisted on visiting farmers and coffee bases. No matter whether it is a small farmer or a large plantation, or whether the coffee field is near or far away in the mountains and remote mountains, he climbs mountains and wades and walks from village to house. over the years, he and his Chinese assistant have traveled to counties, townships, and towns in Yunnan coffee-growing areas. they have visited more than 1300 times, and when they see his familiar tall man, people will say, "Mr. Coffee is here."

Hute and his team have conducted 105 free technical training sessions for more than 7500 people in the region over the years, ranging from guided seed selection, coffee garden management to the completion of primary processing. In addition, Huth and his team cooperate with government departments to carry out professional and technical training every year to transfer the latest coffee growing techniques to help farmers improve their economic benefits.

In view of the lack of information on coffee cultivation in China, Hute and his team worked hard for two years to compile the Coffee planting Manual, summing up Nestle's experience in serving coffee farmers in Yunnan for more than 20 years, and drawing lessons from foreign technology. combined with the reality of Pu'er, the coffee planting technology was introduced with pictures and texts, and 5000 copies of the Handbook were printed and distributed to technicians and farmers free of charge.

Huth, who is committed to 4C

4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) is a widely accepted management rule in the world, which involves the sustainable development of coffee cultivation, production, processing and other aspects of the supply chain. More and more international coffee buyers require that the coffee they buy must meet the requirements of 4C or equivalent.

In order to bring Pu'er coffee into line with the world as soon as possible, and help Pu'er coffee growers pass the certification of 4C organization and become 4C members, Hute and his team conducted 31 periods of training and issued 4C manuals and related materials for 2638 person-times. Go door to door to check the implementation of Section 4C. Through efforts, more than 2600 partners have passed 4C certification, benefiting nearly 36000 farmers, covering nearly 200000 mu of acreage. At this point, Pu'er coffee is not only in line with the international market, the management of the whole Pu'er coffee industry has also reached a new level.

Good coffee has a good market, will get a good price, through 4C certification of coffee in Nestl é coffee procurement station can get higher than the general market price. In the second purchasing season when Hute came to Pu'er, he established a complete quality traceability system at the Nestl é purchasing station. Each bag of coffee beans in storage should be numbered. Through this number, the source of the coffee beans can be traced back to the source of the coffee beans. The information of the supplier, such as planting base, processing method, pesticide and fertilizer use, can be pulled out from the computer, and insist on continuously sending samples to the national quality inspection department for pesticide residue testing. So far, there has been no case of agricultural residues exceeding the standard.