On the road running alongside the Nujiang River, it takes about twenty minutes by car to travel from Liuku Town, Lushui City, in Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, to the Nujiang Spice Industrial Park. At the office of Yunca Biotechnology Co., Ltd., located in the park, the company’s general manager, Zhao Qian, shared in the joy of his employees after winning an award at the 2024 Kunshan International Coffee Industry Exhibition, held on May 16, 2024. The coffee beans processed by the company were recognized as “high-quality specialty coffee beans.” The Nujiang coffee production area is characterized by its high-altitude location on an elevated plateau, which provides unique agricultural conditions for growing premium-quality coffee beans with a distinctive flavor.
In this region, which is the largest specialized coffee-growing area in China, coffee farms are located on the western bank of the Nujiang River, at the foot of the Gaoligong Mountains, at elevations ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 meters. Coffee trees grow across more than 5,000 mu (1 hectare equals 15 mu), producing varieties such as Typica, Bourbon, and Gesha. Zhao Qian said, “High-altitude areas are suitable for growing coffee trees, which also need fertile soil and good weather. The fertile soil, like limestone, granite, and volcanic rock, along with the significant temperature difference between day and night and the clear weather during wet and dry seasons, creates an ideal agricultural environment for coffee trees.” Zhao added that the unique weather of the Nujiang River makes it a “gift of nature” for coffee tree cultivation.
From “Enthusiast” to “Expert”
Ten years ago, Zhao Qian was merely an “enthusiast” who enjoyed drinking coffee and studying coffee beans. Zhao said, “When I saw an imported coffee roaster worth millions of yuan (the US dollar is currently equivalent to approximately 7.2 yuan) in Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, I was shocked because I had never seen such a high-end roaster before.” Zhao didn’t know that with just one kilogram of coffee beans, which costs no more than fifteen yuan, 80 cups of Americano could be brewed using the roaster. He felt that the coffee industry was worth diving into deeply. After that, Zhao Qian returned to Nujiang Prefecture, his grandfather’s homeland, and began planting coffee trees. Gradually, he learned about different types of coffee and became an expert in roasting various beans.
Zhao Qian said, “Drinking coffee has gradually become a lifestyle for people, especially the youth.” He added that the years following his return to Nujiang witnessed a rapid rise in coffee ingredients and local coffee brands in China. Data shows that the size of China’s coffee industry reached 265.4 billion yuan in 2023, with the average annual coffee consumption per capita increasing from nine cups in 2016 to 16.74 cups in 2023. Coffee is currently one of the fastest-growing consumer products in the Chinese market.
Amid the rise of the local coffee market, Zhao also conducted extensive research during these years, helping local coffee farmers plant new varieties of coffee trees instead of the older ones, which were sold at prices ranging from thirty to fifty yuan per kilogram. Zhao said, “Now, a kilogram of specialty coffee beans is sold for eight hundred yuan.” He also trained two Q-Grader-certified coffee experts within his company. The professional certification for Q-Graders is extremely rigorous, with only about eight thousand people worldwide holding this certification, more than two thousand of whom are in China.
Zhao Qian also founded his own coffee brand, “Secret Canyon.” Zhao explained that his company imported the most advanced coffee production line in Western Yunnan, primarily producing a variety of coffee products while independently researching and developing their brand. Zhao added that the company’s coffee beans, freeze-dried coffee, coffee concentrates, coffee capsules, and other products have been well received in the local market. Currently, Yunnan has developed a complete coffee industry chain, from coffee growing to processing raw materials to final product sales. Zhao said, “Nujiang coffee has become a sustainable local industry that enriches the people.”
Over the past five years, numerous local coffee brands have emerged in China, including his own “Secret Canyon” brand, which entered the market later but developed rapidly, becoming widely available in large, medium, and small cities across the country. By focusing on popular coffee and innovative, creative flavors, Zhao believes that China’s coffee market will continue to maintain rapid growth momentum, and persistence in innovation will be a driving force for the industry’s development.
From Nujiang to Shanghai
The fame of Nujiang coffee is not just due to its high quality but also thanks to the support from Shanghai, Nujiang’s partner region.
Consumers appreciate Nujiang coffee for its high content of protein, raw fiber, raw fat, sucrose, and other components, with a low caffeine content. Zhao said, “But another key factor that determines the quality of Nujiang coffee is our ability to maintain the freshness of the coffee cherries as quickly as possible.”
Take the Lisuo Coffee Cherry Farm in Nujiang as an example. The farm produces about 1,500 tons of coffee cherries annually. How can this fresh coffee cherry be turned into real wealth for the people? The Pudong New Area of Shanghai found a good way to adapt measures to local conditions. By fully leveraging the advantages of Shanghai enterprises and Nujiang coffee resources, Shanghai Minlong Industrial Co., Ltd. is investing in building a factory in Nujiang to immediately process and produce fresh coffee cherries, standardize packaging design, build a brand, and sell its products throughout China. Zhang Qiang, the factory manager at Minlong Industrial Co., Ltd. in Nujiang, said, “Currently, we have nine production lines in Nujiang, producing more than twenty coffee products. We cooperate with local coffee farmers and cooperatives to make high-quality small-bean coffee from fresh coffee cherries, which is sold in Shanghai and is very popular with consumers.”
With the support of their counterparts in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai, both sides have successively developed dozens of coffee beans with different flavors, such as floral, fruity acid, and nutty flavors, and have launched creative coffee products like cold brew coffee and drip coffee bags.
Today, thanks to the joint efforts of companies in Pudong and Nujiang, the annual production value of the Lisuo Coffee Cherry Farm in Nujiang has reached 20 million yuan. By growing coffee trees, villagers now have a new source of income. Farmer Qiao Yinghua said, “My family owns 10 mu of land, and when I was planting corn, my annual income ranged from eight to nine thousand yuan. Now, after planting coffee trees, the annual income can reach about 60,000 yuan when the price is good, and more than 30,000 yuan when the price is not good, which is much better than planting corn.”
Niu Bin, the director of Lisuo Coffee Cherry Farm, said, “In the next step, we will use the coffee cherry farm as a demonstration base to build an economic and industrial coffee belt in the central Gaoligong Mountains of Nujiang, connect more effectively with the Shanghai market, increase revenue and profits, and create more job opportunities.”
New Coffee Majors in Universities Thanks to Growing Interest
Not long ago, the Chinese Ministry of Education released the 2024 Guide to University Majors, which included the new major of “Coffee Science and Engineering” established by Yunnan Agricultural University, making it the first university in China to offer coffee training for college students.
Zhao Qian noted that China is currently a large coffee producer, consumer, and grower. In this context, emerging majors not only meet the needs of industrial development but also academic specialization. In 2024, Zhao’s company hired two graduates from coffee-related majors.
The core courses of the “Coffee Science and Engineering” major at Yunnan Agricultural University include coffee planting and roasting, coffee processing, café management, and international coffee trade. Yang Xuehu, dean of the College of Tropical Crops at Yunnan Agricultural University, expressed optimism about the employment prospects for graduates of this emerging major. He said, “Regarding the current job market, Yunnan Province has shown a strong supply-demand momentum for this specialty.”
In March 2024, the Western Region of the “Youth Geisha Coffee Roasting Competition” was held in Nujiang, judged by several well-known local coffee experts. Zhao Qian hopes that more people will learn about Nujiang coffee and the coffee industry through this competition and that Nujiang coffee will expand from Yunnan Province to all parts of China and the world.