Fragrant new industries

[Belt and Road Initiative win-win cooperation]

In Chongqing, which does not produce a single coffee bean, the coffee business is getting bigger and bigger. In 2016, Chongqing Coffee Trading Center was established to establish a coffee industry "made out of nothing" in Shancheng. Behind this grain of coffee beans is the reorganization and renewal of Chongqing's global industrial chain, which is the change of the supply chain between "Belt and Road Initiative" and the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Small coffee beans have more than 1.6 billion consumers around the world. China's coffee industry has great potential for growth, with an average annual consumption growth rate of more than 20%.

In the face of the challenge of transformation and upgrading, the traditional industry giant Chongqing Energy Group has worked with companies such as Yunnan Hougu Coffee to promote coffee trade and import and export business. As a result, the mountain city of Chongqing shouted its own voice in the coffee industry: to create the largest coffee trading platform in the country and the third in the world.

It is not easy to develop such a worldwide platform, but Chongqing has its own strength. As the connecting point between "Belt and Road Initiative" and the Yangtze River economic belt, and the hub and center of the western development strategy, Chongqing is deeply building inland international logistics hubs, port highlands and inland open highlands. To the west, along the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Chongqing-Singapore-Europe international railway transport corridor connects Duisburg, Germany; to the east, relying on the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, waterborne containers can reach Shanghai directly; to the south, it will be connected to the 21st century Maritime Silk Road through the Chongqing-Kunming Railway. These conveniences connect Chongqing closely with the major coffee producing areas in Asia, such as Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the European consumer market.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and the country of origin of world-famous coffee such as Sheffield, Sidamo, Harald and so on. The country has reached a cooperation intention with Chongqing Coffee Trading Center to introduce high-quality coffee to China. "this cooperation provides an opportunity for Ethiopia to open up the Chinese market," said Kobad Abera Aidu, Consul General of the Ethiopian Consulate in Chongqing. "Ethiopia very much welcomes and is willing to cooperate with China to share the future in the construction of Belt and Road Initiative."

The Netherlands is not only a country along the Belt and Road Initiative route, but also a big coffee consumer. In the future, the Coffee Trading Center will carry out extensive cooperation with the Netherlands in coffee trade, European market expansion, warehousing and logistics and other fields.

To build a platform, communicate with the whole world, win-win cooperation, and the development of coffee industry in Chongqing is a wonderful move for harmony between the time, the earth and the people. Jiang Nianbao, CEO of Beijing Man Creative Restaurant Management Co., Ltd., which will open "diffuse Coffee" all over the country, has great expectations for Chongqing Coffee Center: "this is a very convenient platform. We will cooperate in procurement, personnel training and coffee industry incubator. I am very optimistic about the future of Chongqing Coffee Trading Center."

"although it's all black, I prefer to sell coffee. It represents hope and the future." Peng de, general manager of Chongqing Coffee Trading Center, who has sold coal in Chongqing Energy Group for 18 years, is full of confidence in the development prospects of the coffee industry. "the construction of 'Belt and Road Initiative' has accelerated the development of the industry by the end of the first quarter of 2017. Chongqing Coffee Trading Center has achieved a spot coffee trading volume of 5.268 billion yuan and reached a cooperation intention with more than 200 domestic and foreign coffee enterprises."

Peng de told reporters that Chongqing Coffee Trading Center will rely on the east wind of the construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" to build an integrated whole industry chain of coffee processing, trade, warehousing and logistics, and terminal consumption. work with global coffee merchants to build a new industry at the connecting point of "Belt and Road Initiative" and the Yangtze River economic belt.

(Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, April 16th, by reporter Wenchao Shang)