Yunnan Coffee Association: unsalable coffee beans are not true.

People's Daily, Kunming, April 12 (Reporter Li Guijun) in March this year, the media began to pay attention to the continuous decline in the price of coffee beans in Yunnan, and it is difficult to protect the interests of coffee growers. For a time, the news of unsalable coffee beans in Yunnan aroused social concern. On April 12, the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association held a media meeting in Kunming to report the continuous decline in the price of Yunnan coffee beans and the situation of unsalable coffee beans, and said that there are many reasons for this situation. at present, the unsalable coffee beans in Yunnan are not accurate. At the same time, the industry association has also promised to buy all the coffee beans that are still in the hands of growers, and will never let a ton of coffee beans rot in the hands of farmers.

The "unsalable" of Yunnan coffee beans has attracted media attention.

Yunnan Province is the largest coffee bean production base in China, accounting for more than 98% of China's coffee bean output. During the harvest season last year, Yunnan produced 50,000 tons of coffee beans, and this year, the output has reached about 60,000 tons. In theory, a bumper harvest of coffee beans should be a happy thing for farmers. However, in Pu'er, the largest coffee growing area in Yunnan, many coffee beans are still in the hands of growers and have not been sold, which has attracted media attention.

Under normal circumstances, the coffee bean purchasing season should be from the end of October of the first year to the end of June of the following year. However, according to previous media reports, as early as March 26 this year, Nestl é, the largest buyer of coffee beans in Pu'er region of Yunnan Province, posted a "notice on ending procurement" at its purchase site, saying that it would stop buying coffee beans from March 31. Coffee growers can only register the relevant information in accordance with Nestle's requirements and wait for the notice to restart the acquisition. Previously, many growers had to wait four or five days to deliver the coffee beans to the purchase point, and many growers could not deliver the coffee even after waiting four or five days, so they had no choice but to go home and wait for notice.

Previous reports also mentioned that although in addition to Nestl é, many local coffee companies in Yunnan are still buying, but because the purchase price is slightly lower than Nestle, many growers are reluctant to do so. The latest data released by the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association show that at present, in major coffee producing areas such as Pu'er, Baoshan and Xishuangbanna, more than 20,000 tons of coffee beans are still in the hands of growers and have not been sold.

The essence of "unsalable" is that farmers cannot accept the price.

At the media meeting, Xiong Xiangjin, president of Yunnan Coffee Industry Association and chairman of Yunnan Hougu Coffee Co., Ltd., said that the saying that Yunnan coffee beans are unsalable is not accurate.

He believes that it is normal for farmers to have more than 20,000 tons of coffee beans in their hands.

Xiong Xiangjin's reason is that every year the purchase of coffee beans in Yunnan can not be completed until the end of June and early July, and according to the law of previous years, the purchase price of coffee beans is generally low first and then high, but this year, due to the influence of the international futures market, prices have declined significantly compared with previous years, and many growers judge that according to the law that the market price of coffee beans is low first and then high in previous years, the market price will also rise this year. As a result, farmers have been holding a wait-and-see attitude and are unwilling to sell their coffee beans at current market prices, thus forming a stock.

In addition, according to the observation of Yunnan Coffee Industry Association for many years, the price of coffee beans in the world has a price cycle, with a band every ten years or so. The price of coffee beans began to climb gradually in 2003, and last year the global price of coffee beans rose to the highest level in nearly 30 years. But this year, the price of coffee beans began to fall periodically, and because the price fell so fast, it suddenly fell to the level of three years ago, which caught growers by surprise, and it is unknown when prices will rebound in the future. It is difficult for growers to accept this year's income at last year's prices.

As a result of falling prices, many middlemen began to hoard coffee beans and wait and see the price trend, while coffee manufacturers also began to start inventory to maintain production, all of which gave people the illusion that coffee bean production was overproduced and the coffee consumption market had shrunk.

Buying more than 20,000 tons of "unsalable" coffee beans is not a problem.

Xiong Xiangjin said that Dehong, where Hougu Coffee is located, the acquisition of coffee beans was completed as early as the end of February and early March, there is no "unsalable" situation of coffee beans, and Hougu Coffee still has a purchasing capacity of more than 10,000 tons of coffee beans. While in places such as Pu'er and Baoshan, where coffee growers have the most serious wait-and-see mood, there are also many enterprises, including Hougu Coffee, that are carrying out acquisitions.

According to the price of international coffee bean futures, the current purchase price of coffee beans is about 20 yuan per kilogram, while the cost of coffee beans per kilogram is 13-15 yuan. According to the current market price, although the income of growers has decreased compared with previous years, but there will be no loss. As long as growers can clearly understand the market trend and accept the current price, the "unsalable" more than 20,000 tons of coffee beans can be easily "digested".

As for Nestl é's previous notice to stop the acquisition, Xiong Xiangjin explained that because Nestl é's acquisition plan has been completed this year, the warehouse reserves have reached saturation, and Nestl é has added more than 1000 tons of acquisition plans since then. This claim has also been confirmed in previous media reports.

Xiong Xiangjin is more optimistic about the future prospects of Yunnan coffee industry. He believes that this so-called "unsalable" is not a big problem. Coffee beans in Yunnan have never been unsalable in 30 years, and neither will they this year. However, he also admitted that the sharp price decline had a great impact on the Yunnan coffee industry, and pointed out that the Yunnan coffee industry should look for opportunities from this price decline.

Reflection on Coffee Industry in Yunnan

Yunnan coffee industry began to produce on a large scale in the 1950s and has gone through a course of more than 60 years, during which it has experienced too many ups and downs. Especially after the 1980s, Yunnan coffee industry embarked on the road of marketization, when the market was good, Yunnan coffee bean planting area expanded; when the market was bad, farmers cut down coffee beans to grow other crops, coupled with natural disasters and other factors. Yunnan coffee industry has always been in the cycle of "hope begins, disappointment ends".

Since 2003, the price of coffee beans began to rise. by 2008, the planting area of coffee beans in Yunnan Province reached 390000 mu, the output of coffee beans was nearly 30, 000 tons, and the price of coffee beans began to stabilize. By 2011, the planting area of coffee beans in Yunnan has reached 800000 mu, and the price of coffee beans has also peaked. At this time, many problems in Yunnan coffee bean planting industry have also been exposed.

After the unsalable coffee beans in Yunnan were widely reported in the media this year, the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association has repeatedly sent people to visit the main producing areas of coffee beans on the situation that the current purchase price continues to decline and a large number of coffee beans remain in the hands of growers. And found a lot of problems.

The price of coffee beans continued to rise last year, and although many coffee bean growers signed ordering contracts with coffee enterprises, in the purchasing season, seeing that the market price was higher than the contract price, they did not hesitate to unilaterally break the contract and refuse to fulfill the contract. Some growers who fulfill the contract will also add a lot of substandard coffee beans to their products. This has caused many foreign companies to stop coming to Yunnan to buy coffee beans this year.

Under the temptation of high purchase prices, many farmers will not have fully mature coffee beans to sell after harvest, so that the quality of Yunnan coffee beans has been greatly affected. This year, many coffee beans stranded in the hands of farmers are also because the quality is not up to standard. Coffee companies cannot buy. These problems need to be reflected on by coffee bean growers.

At the same time, we also need to reflect on the coffee production enterprises in Yunnan. Xiong Xiangjin mentioned that the current planting scale has been expanded, but there are still problems in the rough processing of coffee beans. For example, after the expansion of planting area, the lack of drying space for coffee beans and the lack of matching of basic drying equipment will pose a potential threat to the quality of coffee beans. To improve the quality of coffee beans, coffee enterprises need to guide the harvest of growers, and improve the processing capacity and production capacity matched with planting.

(responsible Editor: Leo)