At a Glance (China Coffee Network): In the coffee fields of Xilin County, Guangxi, bright red cherries are ripening as a young research-driven sector takes root. Backed by a full-chain research platform, Guangxi is turning “small coffee” into “big industry”—breeding local varieties, building a regional brand, and betting on high-value, specialty development rather than scale alone.
The land of Bagui is filled with joy. Recently, in the coffee base in Puhe Township, Xilin County, Baise City, Guangxi, bright red coffee cherries hung heavy on the branches, ushering in a bountiful harvest. Nong Qianchao, general manager of Guangxi Juting Coffee Development and Trade Co., Ltd., inspected the ripening fruit while telling a reporter from Science and Technology Daily: “Our flagship Catimor variety is strong but not bitter, aromatic but not harsh, and shows an even cleaner sweetness as it cools.”
This wisp of “coffee aroma” is a vivid reflection of Guangxi’s coffee industry development. Qin Jianfeng, director of the Guangxi Coffee Research Center, said: “Relying on a full-industry-chain research platform, Guangxi is letting ‘small coffee’ nurture the ‘great potential’ of rural revitalization and specialty industry development.”
Science-based breeding fortifies the industry’s foundation
“My coffee career began with a defiant attempt,” Nong recalled. In 2018, his family’s first attempt to introduce coffee from Yunnan failed; after he took over, frost struck again, and only two seedlings ultimately survived. Through repeated trial plantings, he gradually identified the suitable growing areas and varieties. This experience impressed upon Nong a deep realization: for the industry to develop over the long term, “rule-of-thumb methods” alone are far from enough—scientific support must keep pace in time.
The turning point came in 2024. As Guangxi stepped up its commitment to the coffee industry, the Guangxi Coffee Research Center was established. Relying on the Guangxi Subtropical Crops Research Institute, the center built a full coffee industry-chain research platform spanning germplasm collection, variety breeding, cultivation techniques, and processing R&D, injecting strong support into industry development.
Inside the center’s nursery and breeding research base, more than 80 breeding materials are being cultivated in orderly rows, while researchers bend down to observe plant growth. Bin Zhenjun, executive deputy director of the Guangxi Coffee Research Center, told the reporter that these materials—aggregating high-quality resources from home and abroad—are the “seeds of hope” for the localized breeding of Guangxi coffee varieties.
“Coffee breeding is slow, painstaking work; cultivating a mature, stable new variety often requires years of continuous selection and testing,” Bin said. To date, the center has preserved 112 coffee germplasm resources and built Guangxi’s first coffee germplasm repository. Beyond that, its three specialist teams—breeding, cultivation, and processing—are tackling bottlenecks in parallel: it has propagated 25,000 regional trial seedlings with a 98% survival rate after bag-and-transplant; it has innovatively cultivated two-year-old large seedlings that are more stress-resistant and fruit earlier, greatly shortening farmers’ payback period; and the cultivation team is breaking through integrated water-fertilizer technology, aiming to form a replicable, scalable standardized cultivation system.
From the two surviving seedlings of those early years to today’s robust research-platform support, Nong is full of confidence in the industry’s future. Looking ahead, he said: “Going forward we will continue our close cooperation with the research institute, further screening and breeding local varieties that are more adaptive and better in flavor.”
Full-chain innovation strengthens a distinctive brand
Research support is rapidly converting into industry momentum. Today, Xilin County’s coffee planting area has reached 2,100 mu. “Low input, high returns have made farmers highly enthusiastic about planting,” Nong said.
Looking across the region, Guangxi’s coffee planting area has surpassed 3,700 mu, with an average growth rate of 48.62% over the past five years. Dongxing coffee was included in the national catalogue of renowned, specialty and new agricultural products, while Rongxian, Nanning, and Chongzuo are steadily advancing their own planting explorations.
As the industry scales up, where does its future lie? “Guangxi will not be a ‘replica’ of Yunnan or Hainan, but a distinctive ‘innovation edition,'” Qin said. As an emerging producing region, Guangxi avoids the scale-competition track and focuses on a high-value, specialty-oriented development direction.
To promote high-quality development of Guangxi’s coffee industry, in December 2025 the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region released the “Guangxi Coffee Industry Development Plan (2025–2030)” (draft for comment), soliciting opinions and suggestions from the public.
Guided by the plan, the Guangxi Coffee Research Center is building a regional public brand and has designed a “Big-Cup Snow” visual identity that plays on the double meaning of “coffee” and “big shot” (daka). On the processing side, the research platform has joined forces with enterprises to accelerate technical breakthroughs, overcoming key technologies for drip-bag coffee and coffee solid-beverage production, and has developed seven coffee products in total, four of which have already reached industrial application. In addition, locally pioneered “flower coffee” series—osmanthus, jasmine and more—deeply fuse Guangxi’s characteristic flowers with coffee flavor, further enriching the product system.
Even more innovative is Guangxi’s pioneering “coffee research manor” model. A leader of the Guangxi Subtropical Crops Research Institute explained that the model integrates research, demonstration, experience, and cultural tourism, showcasing smart planting technology and letting visitors immerse themselves in the full process from picking fresh cherries to the finished cup. At the same time, the manor serves as a talent-development base, delivering professionals through training courses and pushing Guangxi’s coffee industry toward high quality and high added value. Reporters: Wei Qiuying, Liu Hao; Correspondent: Liu Sichao
Reprint Notice & Disclaimer
This article is reprinted from Science and Technology Daily. Original reporting by Wei Qiuying and Liu Hao, with correspondent Liu Sichao. All rights belong to the original publisher. This reprint is for information sharing only; if you believe any content infringes your rights, please contact us to request removal or correction.
Related Reading
‘All-Ice’ Coffee Goes Viral! Will the Next Hit Be Your Personal Favorite?- Hong Kong’s Dyee Coffee Lands in Qianhai, Building a Specialty Pour-Over Outpost
Ken Yue Coffee Opens Egg-Tart Pop-Up in Hangzhou: Sweet Craft, Reinvented Classics
World Cup Enters the Breakfast Slot: Can Coffee-Tea Brands Turn Traffic into Orders?- ICE Agricultural Futures Mostly Rise at Close; Coffee Futures Up 3.28%
- ‘Sleep Cafés’ Become a New Favorite Among Seoul Office Workers
Liaoning ICP Security No. 21122402000217