A Cup of Yunnan Coffee in New Zealand

WELLINGTON/KUNMING, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) — Reporter’s Notes: A Cup of Yunnan Coffee in New Zealand

By Xinhua reporters Yi Aijun, Chen Zheng’an and Zhuang Beining

In recent months, coffee beans produced in China’s Yunnan Province have increasingly appeared in cafes across major New Zealand cities. Amid the lakes and mountains of the Southern Hemisphere, savoring a cup of “Yunnan coffee” — with the flavors of sunshine, plateau and mountain folded into the brew — is a distinctive experience.

When people think of coffee origins, Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia usually come to mind. That impression is now changing — Yunnan, China, is emerging as a “new face” on the global coffee map.

MQ Coffee, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is dedicated to promoting Yunnan coffee locally. Wang Yanqi, co-founder of MQ Coffee, says the quality of Yunnan coffee has improved markedly in recent years, and overseas consumers are paying growing attention to Chinese coffee.

MQ Coffee currently runs customized coffee products, drip-bag coffee production and packaging in New Zealand, and through product tastings, professional training and origin exchanges, it lets local consumers and coffee professionals encounter Yunnan coffee.

“Yunnan specialty beans get better every year,” Zhang Xue, a New Zealand coffee trainer, told Xinhua, adding that Yunnan specialty coffee is drawing increasing industry attention for its flavor expression and quality stability.

Yunnan coffee varieties have distinctive characteristics and rich flavor profiles. Six core producing regions have taken shape: Pu’er, Baoshan, Lincang, Dehong, Xishuangbanna and Nujiang. Pu’er coffee and Baoshan arabica are included in the China-EU geographical indications agreement for mutual recognition and protection.

According to Kunming Customs, in the first eight months of 2026 Yunnan exported 11,000 tons of coffee worth 450 million yuan, mainly to 42 countries and regions including Vietnam, Malaysia and Germany — the highest export value in China. In 2025, Yunnan exported 195.6 tons of green coffee beans to New Zealand, worth 10.2 million yuan.

Kunming Changchun Import and Export Trade Co., Ltd. exported about one ton of coffee beans to New Zealand in March this year. General manager Wang Shizhao says New Zealand has a deep coffee culture: Queenstown, a well-known tourist city, has many cafes, and the locally popular Wolf Specialty Cafe imports Yunnan beans. Yunnan’s Typica coffee is popular with local consumers, while other varieties such as Caturra and Sarchimor also enjoy good reputations.

Some Yunnan coffees have good sweetness and body, Wang Yanqi says, retaining coffee flavor even with milk added — a good match for the milk-based coffee New Zealand consumers know. Some finely processed Yunnan coffees can also present richer floral and fruity notes through pour-over and drip brewing.

For Yunnan coffee, entering overseas cafes is only the first step. New Zealand’s coffee market has developed a mature industrial chain covering import, roasting, wholesale and retail. For Chinese coffee products newly entering the market, building stable sales channels and expanding the consumer base — turning novelty into lasting competitiveness — is the challenge to meet.

To raise recognition of Yunnan coffee, MQ Coffee has organized New Zealand coffee professionals and enthusiasts to visit Yunnan producing regions to learn about local coffee growing and processing. From winning attention to building a steady consumer base, the story of Yunnan coffee “crossing the ocean” is opening a new chapter.

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