Bits and pieces of African coffee beans in China

Coffee originated in Africa and little is known about it. In fact, Africa Ethiopia is the hometown of coffee, producing the best Arabian coffee in the world. Soil, climatic conditions and an altitude of more than 2000 meters above sea level have enabled many African countries to create an ideal environment for the growth of coffee. At present, coffee production in Africa accounts for about 13% of the world's total output, and coffee income is an important source of GDP and exports for some African countries. Ethiopia's coffee exports are the largest source of the country's foreign exchange earnings, accounting for more than 35 per cent of the country's total foreign exchange earnings, about 25 per cent of the national livelihood is directly or indirectly related to coffee, 40.5 per cent of GDP and about 20 per cent of taxes come directly from the coffee industry.

According to Ethiopians, coffee cultivation is the main income of Ethiopians, and its output ranks second in Africa. Eighty-five percent of households in Ethiopia grow coffee, and other cash crops include flowers, sesame seeds, beans and so on. Ethiopians grow coffee in almost every household and drink coffee every day, and coffee shops can be found everywhere on the streets. As for the price of coffee, of course, it is also very low. Each kilogram of coffee in Ethiopia costs only 80 bill (16 bill to the dollar), or $5, or more than 30 yuan, which is only enough to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks in China. Excellent quality and low price are not only a prominent symbol of African coffee, but also won a high international reputation, attracting many well-known European and American as well as domestic coffee chains and coffee franchisees to purchase in Africa, including Starbucks in the United States and St. Spurs in the United Kingdom.

Chinese people have been drinking tea for thousands of years. As the origin of tea in the world, people more or less ignore or despise coffee as a foreign beverage in terms of consumption habits and concepts. The coffee culture of Chinese mainland should have started from the Anglo-French-Japanese concession in old Shanghai, while the cafes at that time were infested by foreigners and upper-class Chinese, and did not enter the lives of ordinary people. In recent years, with the impact of foreign culture and the change of life style, more and more coffee has entered the homes of ordinary Chinese people, and Chinese coffee culture has gradually flourished. For China's coffee market, many analysts believe that the market is huge and has great potential for development. Compared with the global average growth rate of 2%, China's coffee consumption is growing at an astonishing rate of 15% a year, according to the International Coffee Organization in London.

With the rise of Chinese coffee culture, people gradually began to understand African coffee, and even many coffee lovers began to promote and sell African coffee in China after tasting African coffee. In the face of China, a huge emerging coffee market, African coffee has been in a lukewarm, slow development stage, for many reasons. First of all, compared with the traditional Chinese tea culture, the rise of Chinese coffee culture is short and its influence is weak.

Secondly, the development of African countries in the field of coffee processing and packaging lags behind, and the lack of influential private brands is another reason for its slow development in China.

In addition, the unfavorable promotion of African coffee industry in China and the lack of brand awareness are all the reasons for the slow trip of African coffee to China.

However, with the increasingly close economic and trade relations between China and Africa in recent years, Chinese people have a deeper and deeper understanding of Africa, and more and more Chinese coffee chains taste and fall in love with African coffee. Many of them consciously act as ambassadors for African coffee and are active in the Chinese-African coffee market. It has also made an indelible contribution to China's coffee joining market, as well as business opportunities for coffee joining and opportunities for small investors.