Why Yunnan Coffee Can Represent China

On March 19, 2025, during an inspection tour of Lijiang Old Town in Yunnan Province, General Secretary Xi Jinping had a cordial exchange with local residents and tourists along the way: “Yunnan coffee still represents China, and it is now popular abroad.” From raw-material supply to a national brand, from mountain flavors to a fragrance spreading far and wide, from a regional specialty to a Chinese calling card — the industrial transformation of Yunnan coffee is a vivid practice of deeply implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “broad food perspective” and “broad agricultural perspective,” and a vivid footnote to the high-quality development of plateau-characteristic agriculture in the Yunnan chapter of Chinese-style modernization.

Concentrating on industrial transformation to build a landmark calling card of plateau-characteristic agriculture. In seed-industry research, Yunnan has built the nation’s largest and most comprehensive coffee germplasm repository, preserving over 1,500 germplasm resources — more than 90% of the national total — and independently breeding 22 varieties including “Yunka No.1” and “Dere.” In planting and promotion, in 2025 high-quality coffee varieties accounted for 20.9% of the province’s planted area, about four times that of 2021; in 2025 the province’s coffee planting area reached 1,518,800 mu (about 101,300 hectares) with output of 170,700 tonnes and agricultural output value of about RMB 9 billion, all ranking first in the country. In industrial-chain upgrading, Yunnan pioneered a “six-in-one” working mechanism, rolled out policy measures to raise the specialty rate and deep-processing rate, and allocated over RMB 30 million in awards and subsidies, developing full-category products such as roasted beans, concentrates, instant powder and freeze-dried powder. In 2025, the province’s coffee specialty rate and deep-processing rate were about five times and four times those of 2021, respectively. In standards and quality, Yunnan led or participated in formulating over 30 coffee standards; “Pu’er Coffee” was approved as the country’s first national standard for a coffee geographical-indication product; in 2026, three Yunnan coffee beans broke the 90-point barrier at the Cup of Excellence (CoE), taking the top three.

Upholding green development to build an ecological calling card that puts the “Two Mountains” theory into practice. At the planting end, Yunnan strictly observes ecological protection red lines, comprehensively banning deforestation for new farms and illegal expansion; it promotes three-dimensional “coffee + shade trees” planting, develops complementary “photovoltaic + coffee” planting, and innovates a “coffee + banana + forage + Chinese bees” composite farming model, with large-scale coffee planting bases across the province basically achieving integrated water and fertilizer management. At the production end, it vigorously promotes green processing technologies such as low-water pulping and de-mucilaging, water recycling and low-temperature drying, reducing water use by over 90%; it advances “whole-fruit utilization,” developing products such as peel tea, fruit-flavored drinks and coffee soap to realize resource use of peels, pulp and grounds. At the consumption end, 60 coffee products in the province obtained green-food certification and 121 obtained organic certification; the coverage of Yunnan specialty beans in premium stores in first-tier cities rose significantly — 90% in Shanghai and over 80% in Beijing.

Empowering opening-up to build an open calling card for Yunnan’s integration into the “dual circulation.” Leveraging its location — backed by the large domestic market and adjacent to major global coffee-producing regions — Yunnan drives its coffee deep into global industrial, supply and value chains. Focusing on domestic demand to secure supply, the province’s coffee output grew about 22% from 2021 to 2025; relying on port advantages for local processing, Hekou built a production line with an annual processing capacity of 20,000 tonnes, and Jinping built a coffee-processing industrial park. Focusing on overseas demand to expand markets, in 2025 the province exported 19,000 tonnes of coffee worth RMB 860 million, both ranking first nationally, shipped to 43 countries and regions worldwide. Strengthening external introduction and internal cultivation: Nestlé has been rooted in Yunnan for nearly 40 years, Starbucks has certified over 3,400 farms, Luckin built a fresh-fruit processing plant in Baoshan, and Cotti designated Lincang as a core domestic base; local enterprise Zhongka has been the Tmall coffee-bean sales champion for five consecutive years. Deepening east-west collaboration, Baoshan used over RMB 50 million in Shanghai-Yunnan cooperation funds to support coffee development, lifting its specialty rate from 10% to 70% and its deep-processing rate from 30% to 85%.

Deepening border-prosperity and people-enrichment efforts to build a livelihood calling card for long-term stability in border areas. In empowering income growth, the annual per-household income of the province’s coffee farmers rose from just over RMB 10,000 five years ago to over RMB 30,000. Yunnan promotes farmer-benefit mechanisms such as Menglian’s “334” and Mengzi’s “622,” and Pu’er innovated a “three incomes plus profit” model, achieving multiple returns from a single mu of coffee. It innovates grassroots Party-branch-led cooperatives; in 2025, Dongzhu Village in Pu’er distributed over RMB 3 million in dividends to 164 farming households. In employment and entrepreneurship, the coffee industry covers over 200,000 farming households and nearly 1 million workers across the province. Baoshan’s “Uncle Coffee” Li Jinhe pioneered the viral “fire-roasted coffee” business; Dehong Prefecture formed a “Youth Pioneer” coffee-industry alliance; Ruili youth Yin Wei founded the “NL24” brand, managing over 5,700 mu of coffee bases. In ethnic unity, Menglian County in Pu’er deepened the “Binong Saihai” ethnic-unity mutual-aid model, driving more than 400 farming households of Wa, Dai, Lahu and other ethnic groups to develop together, raising planting income by 30%.

Advancing coffee-tourism integration to build a quality calling card of “a kind of life called Yunnan.” The Kunming Dianchi International Coffee Culture Carnival, held consecutively for three editions since 2024, has become a nationally recognizable phenomenon-level culture-tourism IP. With an integrated territorial layout, nearly 80 specialty coffee manors have been built, and 10 specialty coffee manors tour routes released, forming a point-and-line, full-territory coffee experience-tourism layout. Enriching consumption scenes, about 2,400 cafés in Kunming are distributed across four zones — Cuihu, Caiyunli, Park 1903 and the Dianchi shoreline — while Pu’er has built a coffee-themed street block and a “520” tea-coffee night market. For immersive “local culture” experiences, Baoshan’s Xinzhai Village built five distinctive coffee-themed manors in clusters, leveraging vast coffee-field scenery to unlock diversified activities such as rural sightseeing, manor rest and cultural-creative experiences. Lincang created a “from seed to cup” full-process coffee experience route, letting visitors witness the complete journey of coffee planting, picking, processing and brewing, and feel the wild texture and local charm of Yunnan coffee.