The import volume of raw beans accounts for 42% of the total coffee industry chain in China, with an annual output value of 67 billion yuan last year, directly driving employment for over 150000 people
Although not a traditional coffee producing area, Guangzhou has 8017 coffee shops, ranking second in the country and first in southern China in terms of quantity; Although it is not a traditional planting belt, it has cultivated a unique local flavor of Guangzhou in the mountains and wilderness; This is an important channel for global green beans to enter China, a highland for creative coffee exports, and a key hub for smart devices to go global. The aroma of coffee and morning tea blend together, the light and shadow of the arcade and the flowing light of the cups complement each other. The open blood of a millennium old merchant surges endlessly in each cup of coffee.
Over the past two hundred years, Guangzhou has brewed coffee aroma in this bean free land. In recent years, Guangzhou has leveraged its urban industrial power, technological power, and market consumption power to create a coffee industry for the city. By 2025, the annual output value of the entire coffee industry chain in Guangzhou will reach 67 billion yuan, directly driving employment for over 150000 people and accounting for 42% of the country's imported raw beans. A small cup of coffee has become a window to showcase Guangzhou's commercial vitality, industrial upgrading, and consumer charm.
8000 stores weave the aroma of coffee throughout the city
Coffee has long been integrated into the urban breathing of Guangzhou.
It is the commuting water for "early eight people", afternoon tea in office buildings, small gatherings and chats among community neighbors, and cultural and tourism check-in in old streets and alleys. There is a long queue in the front row of the the Pearl River New Town Express Shop. The fragrance in the courtyard of Dongshankou Yanglou is floating, and the downstairs coffee of Yongqingfang and Lingnan style contrast. The Tianhe Liuyun community has one coffee shop every 150 square meters, with the highest density in the country, and is known as the "Coffee Olympic Block" in the industry. The scattered shops outline the daily fireworks and poetic life of a city.
A cup of Guangzhou coffee is full of consumer vitality. By the end of 2025, there will be over 8000 coffee shops in the city, ranking second in the country and first in South China. In 2025, the revenue of beverages and cold drink services (coffee+new-style tea drinks) in Guangzhou will increase by 22.8% year-on-year, making it the strongest engine of catering consumption, with a growth rate far exceeding the average level of social consumption in the city.
This excitement has already been foreshadowed. Li Tao, the founder of Guangzhou CREMA coffee training brand, has been deeply involved in the industry for more than 20 years. He still remembers the scene of 2003: small coffee shops covering an area of over ten square meters selling hundreds of cups a day in Xiaobei and Jianshe Liuma Road, where foreigners gather and 24-hour cafes can be seen everywhere. Guangzhou coffee started early, has a strong atmosphere, and has a deep foundation, planting the seeds of prosperity early on.
Little known is that Guangzhou has already nurtured its own unique local flavor. Conghua has been deeply cultivating coffee for seven years, and has cultivated a unique coffee with a sweet lychee aroma under the lychee forest in Luodong Craftsman Town. The relevant planting practices have been recorded in the Conghua Yearbook. Conghua will officially establish 2026 as the "Conghua Coffee Year", and the cultivation of the local variety "Liuxi Lixia" will be promoted simultaneously with the application for geographical indications. With the integration model of "coffee+picking+baking+cultural tourism+intangible cultural heritage", it will add a touch of native aroma from the mountains to the coffee industry in Guangzhou.
What makes Guangzhou coffee even more popular is its product innovation. Guangzhou baristas are well versed in the essence of "eating in Guangzhou" and blend Cantonese culture into their cups: the Jade Orchid Dirty is as refreshing as the evening breeze, the Old Guangzhou Dirty brings the sweetness of water grapes and lotus mist, the aged tangerine peel is cold extracted and mellow, the herbal tea coffee and beef offal coffee boldly cross boundaries, without any dogmatic constraints, only delicious and fun.
The creativity of Guangzhou's coffee industry has attracted worldwide attention. In the Baiyun Jinda Coffee and Beverage City, the "Wanyu Water Bar" store provides one-stop tea and coffee shop opening services. Sylvia, a businessman from North Macedonia, lowers her head and carefully records the details of fruit and coffee blending, with notes filled with ratios and insights. Guangzhou has modern coffee ideas, which are very popular among young people in our area. She wants to bring this inspiration to her hometown. This store receives 20-30 batches of overseas merchants who come from afar every month, with a single cooperation amount often reaching millions of yuan.
The brand world is even more exciting and diverse. Luckin Coffee, Starbucks Manner、 Kudi and other national chains have densely laid out in Guangzhou; Local brands are rising strongly and forming their own faction. Round Trip Coffee, Tili Coffee, Store by. jpg, PAIX and other Cantonese coffee brands have quickly established themselves in the market with stable production, pragmatic pricing and attentive service. Tili Coffee has now established 200 stores nationwide. More than 40% of independent coffee collections are located in the streets and alleys of Guangzhou, small yet beautiful, small yet refined, allowing Guangzhou coffee to always maintain the most vibrant fireworks and creativity.
From China's first coffee shop to the International Coffee Trading Center
Guangzhou is the starting point of Chinese coffee. In 1836, the first coffee shop in China, "North Wind and Sea," opened on Thirteen Rows Jingyuan Street; In 1905, Fangcun established China's first coffee roasting workshop; Overseas Chinese returning to their hometowns brought drinking habits, allowing coffee to integrate into urban life early on. After a hundred years of circulation, it is natural for Guangzhou people to accept and love coffee.
International hub status allows global flavors to smoothly reach Guangzhou. In 2024, 183000 tons of raw beans will be imported through Guangzhou Customs District, accounting for 42% of the national total, with an import value of 800 million to 1 billion US dollars. Huangpu Port, Nansha Port, and Baiyun Airport have built an efficient circulation network, with convenient measures such as 48 hour customs clearance for "immediate inspection upon arrival", 6 hour customs clearance for air transportation, and tax deferral for bonded goods, allowing high-quality green beans from around the world to enter Guangzhou faster and more smoothly, and then be distributed throughout the country. The relevant person in charge of the Guangzhou Coffee Industry Association said that Guangzhou has become an important hub for coffee trade in the country, with obvious characteristics of dual wheel drive for import and export. In the future, with the promotion of the construction of the "International Coffee Trading Center", the trade distribution function will be further strengthened.
The coffee industry chain drives upstream and downstream as well as cultural and tourism consumption
Every cup of coffee on the streets is accompanied by an industrial chain. The industrial ecosystem woven together by factories, warehouses, exhibitions, and stores has supported the tens of billions of yuan volume of Guangzhou's coffee industry.
In the modern roasting workshop in Guangzhou, coffee beans roll in the intelligent roasting machine, and the caramel aroma permeates. The enterprises represented by awesome Coffee have an annual baking volume of more than 3000 tons, which can supply 360000 cups of coffee to the market in a day, stably supporting the daily production of more than 6000 coffee shops in South China, and even opened the overseas market with high-end boutique coffee last year. In the boutique baking workshop, the masters focus on flavor blending, allowing raw beans from all over the world to shine with a unique taste in Guangzhou. The annual revenue of the coffee trading and baking sector remains stable at 8-12 billion yuan, becoming a solid foundation for the industry.
The manufacturing of coffee equipment and utensils has given Guangzhou the hard power to go global. In the production workshop of Huangpu, one intelligent coffee machine after another is assembled and debugged. They are equipped with self-developed IoT systems that can remotely monitor and intelligently dispense cups, and are ultimately exported to more than 100 countries and regions. Just one enterprise, Jinuo Intelligent, has a large-scale production capacity of 260000 complete machines per year. In the core module of fully automated coffee machines, the annual production capacity of a single production line reaches 400000 sets. The export proportion of its products is as high as 70%, with the European market, which places the highest emphasis on coffee quality, having the highest proportion. Its products have successfully entered traditional coffee consuming countries such as Italy and Japan, allowing "Guangzhou Intelligent Manufacturing" to establish a foothold in the global market. The annual revenue of the coffee equipment and utensils sector has reached 5-8 billion yuan, becoming a new highlight of industry growth.
The coffee industry event is continuously being created. In the future, Guangzhou will connect the upstream and downstream of the industry through industry events, forming a closed-loop ecology for coffee in Guangzhou and promoting economic multiplier effects – for every 1 yuan invested, it can drive upstream and downstream as well as cultural and tourism consumption by 1.8-2.2 yuan.
We cordially invite you to gather for the Guangzhou coffee season during the May Day holiday
Looking towards the future, the coffee industry in Guangzhou has vast growth potential and more possibilities. Some coffee industry professionals in Guangzhou suggest that Guangzhou can further leverage its advantages as a commercial hub, continuously optimize the efficiency of services such as green bean distribution, bonded warehousing, and logistics clearance, and promote the efficient aggregation of global coffee resources; Continuously improving the coffee talent cultivation system and injecting more sufficient professional strength into the long-term development of the industry; Deepen the integration and innovation of coffee with rural revitalization, culture, commerce, and sports, continuously expand consumption scenarios, enrich the value connotation of the industry, and promote the coffee industry to achieve higher quality and more sustainable development.
The advancement of the industry requires the assistance of platforms and the cohesion of consensus. This year's May Day, the upcoming coffee season in Guangzhou, is an important opportunity to gather industry strength, stimulate urban vitality, and promote communication and symbiosis. It is not only a coffee experience for citizens, but also an important starting point for Guangzhou's coffee industry to connect resources and move towards a new direction.
On this May Day holiday, we sincerely invite you to gather at the Guangzhou coffee season, to enjoy a cup of rich aroma and make a beautiful appointment that belongs to Guangzhou.
Translated from: Guangzhou Daily
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