Bean in Short Supply: A Taiwan Youth on Yunnan Coffee as a Shared Cross-Strait Stage

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): From Taipei, Su Yunkai developed a love for Yunnan flavors and fluency in the Yunnan dialect under the influence of his grandparents from a young age, early on planting a desire to go to Yunnan. Crossing the strait, he came to Menglian on the China-Myanmar border to operate a coffee plantation; in just a few years the base’s annual output surpassed 1,700 tons. Today he not only sells coffee to Shanghai and Shenzhen, but has also set up a trading company in Taiwan to push Yunnan’s specialty coffee into Southeast Asia.

From Taipei, Su Yunkai developed a love for Yunnan flavors and fluency in the Yunnan dialect under the influence of his grandparents from a young age, early on planting a desire to go to Yunnan. Crossing the strait, he came to Menglian on the China-Myanmar border to operate a coffee plantation; in just a few years the base’s annual output surpassed 1,700 tons. Today, he not only sells coffee to Shanghai and Shenzhen, but has also set up a trading company in Taiwan, pushing Yunnan’s specialty coffee to Southeast Asia. In Su’s view, the two sides of the strait rise with the tide; “Yunnan coffee” connects mountains and seas — the southern Yunnan coffee gardens are not only the fertile soil for his personal entrepreneurship, but also a broad stage for young people from both sides to pursue dreams together and develop in unity. (Reporter Wang Bo, Producer Wang Xue’er)