China's coffee industry is waiting to "break out of the cocoon"

Chen Jie

Under the influence of futures in the international market, since February this year, the wave of continuous decline in coffee prices has swept across Yunnan. The problems of unsalable coffee and falling prices have caused the outside world to think about the development of China's coffee industry.

Yang Chunhai, 56, is a villager of Nandaohe Village, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province. At present, he and his son grow more than 50 mu of coffee. He told reporters that the price of coffee in the market last year was good, with a maximum price of 40 yuan per kilogram, but this year the price dropped sharply, losing tens of thousands of yuan compared with last year, and the idea of expanding the original planting area was given up.

The reporter learned from the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association that the output of coffee beans in Yunnan this year reached 60,000 tons, an increase of 20,000 tons over last year. The main reason for the continued decline in coffee prices is that the world economic situation has affected the coffee market. in addition, the world coffee price has a price cycle of about one band every 10 years. Last year, global coffee prices rose to their highest level in nearly 30 years. Coffee prices fell back this year, but they fell so fast that coffee growers were caught off guard.

Data show that in China, in addition to a small amount of coffee grown in areas such as Hainan and Panzhihua in Sichuan, 99.3% of the acreage and 98.8% of the total output are concentrated in Yunnan Province. However, many people in the industry said that Yunnan coffee has a long way to go before it can really reach out to the world. The strength of local enterprises is relatively weak, the industrial chain is not perfect, and the lack of ability to effectively resist international market risks has become the bottleneck of the development of China's coffee industry.

Liu Biao, vice president of Yunnan Coffee Industry Association, said: at present, China's coffee is mainly exported as primary products, and its price is greatly affected by the international market.

At the same time, the fledgling coffee industry needs to make efforts to establish a more mature production and processing standard system. At the purchase station of Pu'er Sanglai Coffee Co., Ltd., which is working with Starbucks, a team led by Jeremy Wakeford, chief coffee cup tasters of Starbucks, is busy testing whether the coffee fruits sent by farmers are qualified.

Eremy said that half of the coffee delivered to the procurement station this year had to be returned to farmers because of the quality of the beans, which are also unsuitable for export, mainly because they are not well protected and processed in the hands of farmers. In order to improve this situation, farmers must strengthen the training of corresponding knowledge and skills.

It is reported that in view of the problems in the current coffee planting and processing process, some local governments have issued corresponding policies and funds to support them, such as encouraging some processing plants to promote and use drying racks, so as to avoid the impact of wet ground on coffee quality, and use disposable peeling and degumming machines to ensure the freshness and preservation of coffee fruits.

In the next few years, Yunnan plans to invest 3 billion yuan to build a coffee industry. By 2020, the planting scale of coffee will be increased from 27000 hectares to 100000 hectares, and the output of coffee beans will be increased from 60, 000 tons to 200000 tons.

Dong Zhihua said that the drop in coffee prices has made people more aware of the shortcomings of the coffee industry. To this end, local governments have been trying to provide more funds and policy support to help local enterprises extend the coffee industry chain, enhance their deep processing capacity, and increase brand marketing promotion. It is hoped that China's coffee industry will really "break out of the cocoon" in response to international challenges.

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com