Showcase features Asian beans and Malaysian cafe culture
KUALA Lumpur is set to become a meeting point for coffee lovers and industry players with festivals scheduled to take place this November and April 2027.
KL Coffee Festival 2026 will be held from Nov 6 to 9, while its 2027 edition will take place from April 1 to 4, at Pavilion Damansara Heights.
With an ambitious target of more than 100,000 visitors from Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region, event founder Terrance Lim hopes it will become Malaysia’s flagship international coffee festival.
“Hundreds of cafes, coffee roasters and investors are expected to join the event.
“However, numbers are not our only measure of success.
“I believe connections between industry players that we establish through the event is a better measure,” he said at the soft launch for the event.
He also said Malaysia, with its strategic location, was “beautifully positioned” to host the festival due to its diverse cafe culture and great hospitality.
“Coffee can become the gateway for our neighbourhoods, cafes and restaurants.
“This aligns with the principles of the Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign which states that tourism largely revolves around experiences and connections we can create for tourists,” he said.
Also present were Tourism Malaysia deputy director-general Mohd Akbal Setia, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and Pavilion Group marketing director Kung Suan Ai.
Mohd Akbal said the cafe culture in Malaysia had become an important part of the country’s appeal.
“Malaysian coffee businesses, be they traditional kopitiam or speciality cafes, have strong creativity and beautiful heritage to be showcased to tourists.
“Coffee has been something Malaysians appreciate all year round.
“It is on our menu for almost every meal, especially breakfast.
“I also wish to highlight that Malaysia’s breakfast culture has been inscribed on Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“This shows that people from all over the world appreciate our breakfast culture, including our coffee.”
He added that the Malaysian coffee market was estimated to be worth RM4.3bil, with one Malaysian consuming an average of 110 cups of coffee per year.
The soft launch ceremony also unveiled the inaugural Asia Coffee Summit that will be held from April 2 to 4 alongside KL Coffee Festival 2027.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between Huuha Production (M) Sdn Bhd and Asia Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) from South Korea to mark their partnership in hosting the summit.
Lim, who is also Huuha Production chief executive officer, said one of the summit’s highlights would be the Asia Top 100 Cafe Awards ceremony aimed at recognising outstanding cafes in the region.
ASCA president Paul Bae Seung-deok expressed his happiness over Kuala Lumpur becoming the first host city of the Asia Coffee Summit.
“The MOU represents much more than the signing of an agreement.
“It marks the beginning of a long-term partnership and a new chapter in connecting the people, cities and coffee communities of Asia.
“Together, let us connect Asia through coffee.
“And together, let us bring Asian coffee to the world,” he said.
