Coffee drinking culture perks up in China

Hot business: People wait for their orders at a Luckin Coffee outlet in Shanghai in this file picture. There is fierce competition between global coffee chains and domestic players like Luckin Coffee in China. — Bloomberg

BEIJING: China is probably the last place where one would expect a large group of consumers to overwhelmingly take to coffee.

Traditionally home to products like oolong tea, Longjing (Dragon Well) tea and Xinyang Maojian tea, the country is, however, slowly seeing consumer preferences and consumption patterns evolve in favour of the dark beverage.

The fierce competition between global coffee chains such as Starbucks and Costa, and domestic players like Luckin Coffee and Manner Coffee, coupled with surging demand for coffee makers and beans sourced from various countries, have resulted in a greater number of coffee shops springing up across the country, leading to a significant increase in coffee consumption.

In fact, Jiangsu province in East China – a major coffee bean importing region – has seen a significant surge in green coffee bean imports.

The province imported 8,193 tonnes of green coffee beans valued at 250 million yuan (RM157mil) in the first five months of 2023, a year-on-year growth rate of 65%, according to data from Nanjing Customs, a local unit of the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

“Our main imports were green coffee beans from Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia over the past two years,” said Wang Rui, a warehouse manager of Kunshan Yiguo International Trade Co Ltd in Kunshan, Jiangsu province.

The company has expanded its sourcing to include Costa Rica for the first time this year, importing 76.8 tonnes of green coffee beans from the Central American country in the first six months.

After the GAC permitted the import of coffee beans from Honduras in June, Wang’s company is looking to source the beans from the Central American nation in the future.

“Coffee bean suppliers from Honduras are also making efforts to apply for business registration qualifications in China. Once they obtain export qualifications, we will be able to import coffee beans directly into China,” said Wang.

“Driven by consumers’ diversified shopping preferences on coffee products, we will expand into more coffee-producing regions and bring high-quality specialty coffees to the home market, especially cities located in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions.”

The origins of coffee bean exports are expanding and their import volume is growing, said Gong Kaiqing, president of Kunshan Kele Coffee Baking Co Ltd, adding that soaring orders meant the quantity of purchased raw coffee beans has increased notably compared to the same period last year.

“Regarding our coffee bean imports this year, we expect an increase of approximately 50% from 2022,” he said.

The firm has already made reservations for the second half of this year and the beginning of 2024, Wang said. Kunshan, a major coffee processor, imported 185 million yuan (RM116mil) worth of coffee beans in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year growth of 206.5%. — China Daily/ANN