How to dry Yunnan coffee after "out of the circle"

Why is Yunnan coffee "out of the circle"? And why can't it ignite? With these problems, the reporter of "Securities Daily" visited the main coffee-producing areas in Yunnan, felt the vein of Yunnan coffee growth at "zero distance", and explored the development of Yunnan coffee characteristic industry——

Coffee farmers harvest coffee

Photo courtesy of the Publicity Department of Longyang District Party Committee of Baoshan City

Reporter Li Ru and Liu Zhao

Once raised in the deep mountains, people don't know, but now they are fragrant in the coffee shop on the corner.

With the rapid rise of domestic coffee brands, Yunnan coffee is "out of the circle".

Jingdong supermarket data shows that the national coffee brands represented by Yunnan coffee continue to rise, from 2020 to 2022, Yunnan coffee sales in Jingdong supermarket increased by 6 times, and the number of users increased by 5 times. Starbucks, Manner and other domestic and foreign coffee brands contain more and more "cloud coffee". According to the China Research Network, the national coffee bean consumption in 2021 will be 25,20 tons. Based on the annual output of Yunnan coffee of 10,87 tons, Yunnan coffee accounts for about 40% of the country's consumption.

Although increasingly favored by the market, Yunnan coffee companies have not got rid of the troubles of growth, and still face many difficulties in financing and listing...

From scratch

After tempering, it is waiting to grow

The mouth is lightly bitter, and the aftertaste is rich in fragrance.

The growth path of Yunnan coffee is just like the fascinating taste of coffee.

The global coffee varieties are Arabica, Robusta and Liberica, of which Arabica coffee is the world's highest coffee production variety. At present, the most widely cultivated coffee variety in Yunnan is Katim, and in some areas there are a small number of varieties such as Tepika and Bobon, all of which belong to Arabica varieties of coffee. Yunnan caffeine's unique flavor of "strong but not bitter, fragrant but not strong, slightly acidic" has been praised as one of the best quality coffees in the world.

"Coffee has entered Yunnan as early as the end of the 19th century, and the real large-scale production is after the founding of New China, and a new era of China's coffee scientific research and industrialization development has also begun." After years of development, Yunnan's coffee industry has basically formed a complete industrial chain, with planting area, output and agricultural output value accounting for more than 98% of the country, and the area and output accounting for 0.82% and 1.08% of the world, respectively, which has unique advantages in China. In the coffee germplasm resource garden of the Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Cash Crops of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Huang Jiaxiong, the chief coffee expert who has been engaged in coffee research for nearly <> years, told the reporter of "Securities Daily" about the situation of coffee taking root in Yunnan and large-scale cultivation.

In the 20s of the 80th century, the development of Yunnan's coffee industry experienced a period of confusion, coffee trees were often planted and destroyed, and the industrial development was very disorderly. This situation continued until 1988, when Nestlé turned its attention to Yunnan to reduce the impact of coffee growing bases on coffee prices in South America, and began to support the development of the local coffee industry in Yunnan by launching coffee cultivation projects and other methods. After Nestle, coffee companies such as Kraft and Mai's also successively established factories in Yunnan to purchase coffee beans. While industry giants are pouring in, local companies in Yunnan are also relying on themselves and seeking change. By the end of 1997, Yunnan Province's coffee planting area accounted for 70% of the national area, and the output accounted for 83% of the country's total, and Yunnan coffee's dominant position in China's coffee industry was established.

The large-scale cultivation of coffee in the border area of Yunnan has led to the large-scale industrialization of coffee. In 2011, Ye Ping, a Wa woman from Mangmao Village, Fuyan Town, Menglian County, Pu'er City, led the villagers to establish the Menglian Tianyu Coffee Farmers Professional Cooperative. It was the coffee beans produced by this cooperative that were presented to representatives of the 2021 member states of the Security Council by Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, as a special gift, making Yunnan coffee famous at home and abroad.

When the reporter walked into the cooperative, Ye Ping was packing processed coffee beans with the members. In the near future, a large amount of Yunnan coffee will be delivered to the domestic and foreign markets through a convenient and efficient logistics system. Ye Ping told reporters, "Through large-scale planting, cooperative growers have grown from more than 20 to 280 at the beginning, and the planting area has expanded from less than 500 mu to 2388,<> mu, and the income of coffee farmers has increased year by year." ”

The large-scale planting of coffee farmers has rapidly expanded the coffee planting area in Yunnan from more than 2008,30 mu in 2016 to about 175.<> million mu in <>.

However, in 2017 and 2018, Yunnan Coffee experienced another setback. Affected by the price of international coffee futures, the price of green coffee beans in Yunnan has plummeted, and has been fluctuating from 13 yuan / kg to 15 yuan / kg, which is even lower than the cost price. Coffee farmers in some coffee-producing areas had to tearfully cut down coffee trees to plant other cash crops, and Yunnan's coffee planting area and output continued to decline, and the coffee industry fell into an unprecedented period of stagnation.

Policy leadership

Coffee trees grow "golden beans"

Compared with the total global coffee production, Yunnan coffee production accounts for a very small proportion, which cannot be developed according to the model of the world's main coffee-producing areas, and it is difficult to resist the impact of external market changes, which restricts the development and growth of Yunnan's coffee industry. Finding a development path suitable for Yunnan coffee as soon as possible and enhancing its own value has become an urgent problem for industrial development.

In order to promote the orderly development of the coffee industry, Yunnan Province has successively issued a series of documents in recent years, such as "Yunnan Coffee Industry Development Plan (2010-2020)", "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Coffee Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), "Several Policies and Measures to Promote the Improvement of Coffee Boutique Rate and Deep Processing Rate", etc., according to the characteristics and specific conditions of Yunnan coffee industry in different development stages, targeted goals and measures are put forward to lead the healthy development of Yunnan coffee industry.

Among them, the "Opinions" issued in 2017 pointed out that Yunnan Province should be built into the world's high-quality coffee bean raw material base, the country's largest coffee intensive processing and production base, coffee bean delivery warehouse and trade center, build a modern coffee industry system with integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and realize the transformation from a large province of coffee raw materials to a province with strong coffee processing, coffee tourism, coffee trade and coffee culture.

This important decision has completely changed the pattern of Yunnan coffee focusing on low-level development at the planting end.

A number of practitioners in the coffee industry in Yunnan sighed to reporters: "The introduction of policies has guided the direction of our development, and also made coffee farmers have a clearer understanding of the value distribution of the coffee industry chain." "That's exactly what happened. The value-added space of the upstream planting link of Yunnan coffee accounts for 1% of the entire coffee industry value chain, and the profit is extremely low; The value-added space of midstream deep processing also accounts for only 6% of the entire coffee industry value chain; The concentration of downstream circulation links is very high, and the profits are also high, and the value-added links account for 93% of the coffee industry chain.

We must face reality and accelerate the transformation of the development mode, strengthen the chain, and make up for the shortcomings.

Through effective measures such as standardized coffee planting, graded picking of coffee fruits, and centralized processing and screening of coffee beans, the quality rate of coffee beans in Yunnan has been effectively improved, and the price of coffee beans in Yunnan has also continuously set new records. In March 2023, the comprehensive average price of green coffee bean market in Yunnan reached 3.27 yuan/kg.

Wang Jiawei, secretary of the party branch of Xinzhai Village, Lujiangba Town, Longyang District, Baoshan City, happily told reporters, "In 2022, the coffee agricultural output value of Xinzhai Village will be 1 million yuan, and coffee beans will become the 'golden beans' to get rich, achieving a win-win situation for the collective, coffee farmers and enterprises in Xinzhai Village." ”

Yunnan's coffee industry has taken a step towards high-quality development.

Integration of three industries

Towards the road of high-quality development

Tasting coffee is a fashionable life and the fashion of life. How can the taste of coffee be without culture?

Yunnan Province's three-industry integration development strategy of "building a modern coffee industry system with integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries" has made enterprises soberly aware that the integrated development of three industries can not only lengthen the value chain, but also effectively improve the gold content of the industry. In addition to the integration of coffee planting and primary processing, the coffee industry should also establish a sense of quality in the consumption operation process and enrich the cultural connotation.

A number of specialty coffee estates have sprung up one after another, driving the vigorous development of characteristic models.

In Baoshan City, one of the main coffee-producing areas in Yunnan, Xinzhai Village, Lujiangba Town, Longyang District, is known as "China's first coffee village". The reporter climbed the observation deck at the foot of Gaoligong Mountain, the scenery of the 2022,10 mu of coffee planting fields in Xinzhai Village was unobstructed, coinciding with the harvest season, under the cascading green leaves full of coffee fruits, here, people can experience the farmhouse rich in coffee characteristics and give new value to coffee. In Bidun Coffee Manor in Baoshan City, tourists who experience coffee picking and handmade coffee can be seen everywhere, and Zhao Qinxiang, deputy general manager of the company, is explaining coffee processing technology to tourists who participate in the whole coffee industry chain experience... In 5000, Baoshan Coffee Estate will receive more than <>,<> tourists and earn more than <> million yuan in tourism revenue.

With new concepts to improve "quality", new models to grasp "integration", new formats to promote "sales", new development to bring "wealth", Yunnan coffee industry through the construction of chains, supplementary chains, to promote the formation of industrial cluster development pattern to accelerate.

Yunnan coffee has come all the way, twists and turns, and finally found a development path that suits you.

Today's "fire out of the circle" of Yunnan coffee in the consumer market shows that its popularity is constantly increasing, and it also shows that consumers love and support domestic brands. However, for the important pillars of rural revitalization and the characteristic industries connecting the development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, Yunnan coffee is far from enough to have the current "fire out of the circle".

Li Xiaobo, president of the Yunnan Coffee Industry Association, is rightly concerned. He told reporters, "Although Yunnan coffee has been more and more recognized, the influence and leading role of the brand need to be continuously enhanced." We want to enhance the status of Yunnan coffee in the industrial chain, but there is no brand that can fully represent Yunnan coffee for the time being, which also reflects the weakness of the industry and needs more capital to help the development of Yunnan coffee industry. ”

Yunnan's coffee industry needs to enhance its influence and cultivate well-known brands, and urgently needs more industrial capital support. Only when the industrial chain is further optimized will relevant enterprises have higher quality development.

On March 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 29 departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Cultivating Traditional Advantageous Food Producing Areas and Local Specialty Food Industries", mentioning Yunnan coffee bean planting bases in the raw material bases of characteristic agricultural products, and mentioning the development of Yunnan coffee products in key local characteristic food industry clusters.

Yunnan's coffee industry, which is gradually growing and expanding, has ushered in broader development prospects. (Securities Daily)