Coffee consumption continues to grow Shanghai wants to create the largest coffee market in Asia

Do you know? Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world after crude oil. People around the world drink more than 2 billion cups of coffee every day, more than 25 million households make a living by growing coffee, and more than 400 million people are engaged in coffee-related industries.

Although Starbucks has opened 1500 stores in China and will expand at a rate of 18 hours, coffee is still not popular in China. But the populous country with a small coffee market is creating the world's fastest rise, with an average annual growth rate of more than 25%.

It is precisely because of this huge potential that Shanghai, which has the advantage of free trade zone, can no longer sit still. On July 6, led by the Professional Committee of Shanghai Food Association, the Coffee Trading Center of Shanghai Free Trade Zone was officially established by China (Shanghai) Free Trade pilot Zone, Shanghai Business Commission and Shanghai Finance Office. The trading center plans to create the largest coffee market in Asia within three years.

China's per capita "combat effectiveness" is less than 1/10 of Japan's.

According to the latest figures, world coffee consumption reached 149.3 million bags in 2014, up 2.3 per cent from 2013. The growth rate of China's coffee market is more than 25%, more than 10 times the world level, and there is still huge room compared with 2-3 trillion yuan in mature markets. According to experts' prediction, China will overtake the United States to become the world's largest coffee consumption market within 10 years. In 2020, China's coffee market consumption is expected to reach 10 trillion yuan.

More intuitively, the average Japanese drinks 1.4 cups of coffee a day, while South Koreans drink 1.2 cups a day, while the Chinese drink only one cup of coffee every two months, that is, less than 0.02 cups per person per day. Compared with China, Shanghainese drink the most coffee, but the per capita consumption of 1 cup of coffee per week, that is, the per capita consumption of 0.14 cups per day is only 1/10 of that of Japan.

It is estimated that the coffee trading volume will catch up with that of Singapore within 3 years and will be given pricing power.

The coffee trading center set up in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone will make full use of the advantages of the free trade zone in finance, trade and policy to promote the steady growth of the national coffee industry. Wang Zhendong, director of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Coffee Trading Center Co., Ltd., told China Business Daily that the platform is expected to achieve a trading volume of 84 billion yuan within two years, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the country's total coffee trading volume. Coffee trading volume within three years can surpass Singapore and be on a par with New York and London.

Wang Jiancheng, vice chairman and executive deputy secretary-general of the electronic trading platform of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, told our reporter that once the coffee trading volume in China is on a par with that of New York and London, China will have independent pricing power. According to Wang Jiancheng, the price of coffee beans in Yunnan is at least 5% lower than the world level.

Wang Zhendong told this newspaper that in the past, China's coffee was mainly imported from Japan and South Korea, which are big coffee consumers. After the establishment of the coffee trading center, it can realize the direct purchase from Brazil, Colombia and other countries, which is a big coffee producer. It can not only reduce the cost of coffee beans by about 10%, but also save considerable costs in logistics and warehousing. At the same time, Chinese consumers can also enjoy fine coffee from coffee farms.

In Wang Jiancheng's view, the biggest advantage of the coffee trading center located in the free trade zone is that the speed of coffee customs clearance will be significantly improved, for example, rapid customs clearance can be achieved in 1 or 2 days, which can effectively improve the quality of coffee beans.

Specifically, the Coffee Trading Center of Shanghai Free Trade Zone will combine the concepts of "coffee electronic trading platform" and "Internet +" to build an innovative development model based on "Zhongjia net" trading platform, coffee innovation finance and coffee creation base.

In addition, the trading center will also build China's first 24-hour creator coffee base project in Shanghai, which can be called the largest, most complete and most sophisticated creator base in China. Wang Zhendong said that unlike opening a coffee shop in China, talking about starting a business while drinking and looking for venture capital, this creator base with an area of 2000 square meters will also have the display of new machines and the packaging of local brands to find venture capital for more promising small businesses.