Coffee production in China

The vast majority of coffee in China comes from southwestern Yunnan Province and is limited to Arabica, a cross between Arabica and Robusta, called Katim. In Yunnan, the Pu'er region produces about half of the province's coffee beans-39000 tons out of a total of 82000 tons between 2012 and 2013.

Traditionally, Pu'er only produces Pu'er tea, one of the most famous black teas that remain. Recently, however, many local farmers have begun to switch to coffee in exchange for more income.

The Development Plan of Yunnan Coffee Industry (2010-2020) outlines the challenges facing Yunnan coffee production. It can be summarized as follows: first, lack of government support and overall planning management; second, backward infrastructure restricts the increase of output; third, small batch, scattered and backward primary processing links reduce the market competitiveness of the final product; fourth, lack of market risk awareness and effective preventive measures; mainly water washing processing, but the region is facing the problem of shortage of water resources.

Mr. Wu Jiahang of FNC is also concerned about the challenges of Chinese coffee, he believes: first, the quality of coffee produced varies greatly; second, the technology lags behind due to the lack of professional technology and information exchange platform; third, there is a lack of uniform standards and long-term goals in the development and promotion of the regional coffee market; fourth, there is a lack of standard system to monitor industry data and ensure quality.

The Laojiang Manor in Pu'er, Yunnan Province, produces about 500 tons of coffee a year, a figure that will not increase significantly over the next five years to ensure that quality is higher than output. The company provides training, sales and equipment support to the 3000 coffee farmers employed throughout the process, from planting, harvesting, preliminary processing to worldwide sales.

At present, the price of most Yunnan coffee is too expensive for domestic ordinary coffee consumption, but the quality has not reached the level of boutique coffee. As a result, it is estimated that 70% of Yunnan coffee will have to be exported to cope with global price and quality competition.

As the region continues to gain important experience and awareness in the future, Yunnan coffee should be able to give full play to its potential to produce high-quality and price-competitive coffee.