At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Starting with a 9.9-yuan cup of affordable coffee, we look at how agricultural products from APEC economies enrich the Chinese table: robusta, the main raw material for cheap coffee, is grown most by Vietnam, and in the first seven months of this year China’s imports of coffee and products from Vietnam rose 45.2% year on year; cherries, durians and king crabs also reach ordinary households via APEC supply chains, while China’s standards are reshaping suppliers in return.
In recent years, agricultural products from APEC economies have kept enriching the Chinese people’s dinner tables. Today we start with a 9.9-yuan cup of coffee to see just how much APEC sits on the Chinese table.
A 9.9-yuan cup of affordable coffee has become common on Chinese streets. Why can it be sold so cheaply? The answer lies in the robusta bean, the main raw material for budget coffee — and the largest grower of this bean is the APEC economy Vietnam. In just the first seven months of this year, China’s imports of coffee and coffee products from Vietnam rose 45.2% year on year, and affordable coffee is moving into ordinary households.
Cherries, durians, kiwifruit and king crabs — agricultural products from across the Asia-Pacific are also quietly enriching ordinary family tables.
Take durian: in the past, domestic consumers could only enjoy the fresh fruit for a short season; now, through APEC economies, it is listed off-season across multiple periods, and “durian freedom” is available almost all year round.
An even more unexpected find is inland: landlocked in Jilin yet bordering Russia, Hunchun has become the distribution hub for 80% of China’s king crabs.
As Asia-Pacific “flavors” enrich the Chinese table, the high standards of the Chinese market are in turn reshaping the supply side.
A single cherry is the most direct example. To meet consumers’ demand for large, sweet fruit, Chile raised the minimum caliber of cherries shipped to China to no less than 24 mm starting December 2021. This threshold forced local growers to renovate orchards and upgrade sorting, and today the industry provides about 200,000 jobs a year for Chile.
The latest data show that in 2025 China imported more than $100 billion of agricultural products from APEC economies, firmly accounting for half of its total agricultural imports, and in the first eight months of this year imports rose a further 6.5% year on year.
The “APEC content” on the Chinese dinner table is an open-answer sheet written into the basics of daily life.
(CCTV reporters Li Bin, Li Jie, Zhang Zhi, Li Guangnan)
[Edited by Wu Qinglu]
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