昆明聚力打造咖啡“三大中心”

Brief (coffeeyo.com): At the launch of the 2026 China Tropical Crops Industry Conference on September 17, Kunming unveiled a three-year coffee action plan centered on building three centers—a trading and distribution hub, a deep-processing center, and a consumption-innovation center—to lift Yunnan coffee from “representing China by origin” to “representing China across the whole chain.”

On September 17, the 2026 China Tropical Crops Industry Conference opened. At the Kunming Coffee Themed Promotion Conference, the relevant official stated that Kunming has issued the “Kunming Coffee Industry Development Three-Year Action Plan (2026–2028),” clearly defining the building of a coffee-product trading and distribution center, a coffee deep-processing center, and a coffee consumption-innovation center—acting as the “connector” and “accelerator” between producing regions and domestic and international markets, and driving Yunnan coffee’s leap from “representing China by origin” to “representing China across the entire industrial chain.”

Yunnan’s coffee output accounts for about 98% of the national total, and its export scale steadily ranks first in the country, yet it faces structural contradictions such as insufficient deep processing, weak brand premium, and a passive position in international pricing. Kunming has the foundation and conditions to reinforce and strengthen Yunnan coffee’s chain: the Dianchi International Coffee Culture Carnival has run for three consecutive years, attracting 6.4642 million visitors this year and generating 55 million yuan in direct sales; the main urban area has an average annual temperature of about 15°C and average relative humidity of about 70%, with about 20,000 tons of constant-temperature, constant-humidity coffee warehousing built and expandable on demand to 150,000 tons; Dounan’s cut flowers, first in Asia in standards, distribution, logistics and branding, provide a path reference for building a coffee whole-chain hub.

In building the coffee-product trading and distribution center, the vast majority of Yunnan’s coffee raw material is distributed through Kunming. Kunming is the only provincial capital with border ports; in 2025 the Mohan port handled 10.042 million tons of import-export cargo worth 62.62 billion yuan; relying on the China–Laos Railway, logistics costs from Vientiane to Kunming dropped 40%–50%; surrounded by major coffee-producing and exporting countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, more and more coffee is choosing to enter China via Yunnan’s ports. Kunming is planning a green-bean delivery center, exploring multimodal dedicated lines, advancing smart warehousing upgrades, and jointly establishing international-benchmark green-bean delivery quality standards with research institutes and enterprises; within the national regulatory framework it is linking to commodity exchanges, seeking to set up designated coffee-futures delivery warehouses, promoting warehouse-receipt pledge financing, and planning to release a Yunnan green-bean spot-price index—gradually raising Yunnan coffee’s say in pricing.

In building the coffee deep-processing center, Kunming holds three advantages: raw material “available from both ends”—close to Yunnan’s producing regions domestically and conveniently sourcing from ASEAN producing countries abroad; a clear green-power advantage, with total provincial installed power capacity exceeding 170 million kW, clean energy above 90%, and low industrial electricity prices, which both supports cost reduction in energy-intensive processes like roasting, cold brew and freeze-drying and underpins product carbon-footprint accounting; and a formed industry cluster, with 26 coffee-processing enterprises settled in the city and an annual processing output value of about 1.8 billion yuan. Kunming is planning carrier platforms such as a coffee industrial park, focusing on cold-brew concentrates and freeze-dried instant products, and laying out coffee landed-processing in the Mohan–Boten cooperation zone—stacking border-trade policy dividends and RCEP cumulative-origin rules to build a cross-border “ASEAN raw material + domestic processing + two-way sales” industrial-chain cooperation model. At the same time, it invites experts to co-build a coffee technology-innovation center, focusing collaborative breakthroughs on directed fermentation, flavor evaluation and by-product utilization.

In building the coffee consumption-innovation center, Yunnan is a world-class tourist destination, receiving 782 million visits province-wide in 2025, including 8.6426 million inbound tourists. Kunming has seen the emergence of Chinese-style coffee innovations such as tea-coffee, fruit-coffee and mushroom-coffee, and the rise of a batch of local brands going national. The city has more than 2,400 coffee business entities and over 200 brands, with 3.1 coffee shops per 10,000 people—among the top of provincial capitals—and consumption scale growing over 30% annually. Kunming will keep refining distinctive blocks and enriching “coffee + intangible heritage, coffee + culture & museums, coffee + micro-vacation” formats, making a cup of Yunnan coffee a must-do for experiencing “a kind of life called Yunnan.” The conference proposed relying on international trade service stations covering neighboring countries such as Laos and Thailand to build an overseas-incubation service platform, turning Kunming into an overseas-service base for Chinese-style coffee and new tea drinks.

From the first coffee tree taking root in Zhukula Village, Binchuan, Dali in 1892 to today, Yunnan coffee has traveled more than 130 years. As the three centers advance in coordination, Kunming is expected to drive Yunnan coffee toward the nation and the world. (Chief reporter Liao Xingyang)

(Kunming Daily)

Reprint Note & Disclaimer

1. This article is reprinted from Chinese media for information and cultural exchange. The views expressed are those of the original author and do not necessarily reflect the position of coffeeyo.com.
2. All trademarks, brand names and logos mentioned belong to their respective owners.
3. For cooperation, reprint or correction requests, please contact coffeeyo.com.

Reprint Notice & Disclaimer

1. This article has been edited and compiled by China Coffee Network. The information and images therein come from public sources and the copyright belongs to the original author. This reprint is intended solely for information sharing within the coffee industry and does not represent the views of this website; all data and opinions are subject to the original article. Our thanks to the original author for creating and sharing it.
2. For matters concerning content licensing, attribution, copyright or otherwise, please contact us promptly and we will verify and cooperate in handling them as soon as possible. We also welcome coffee origins, brands and industry media to exchange ideas and contribute articles.
3. Contact China Coffee Network: Tel 400-0000-641 (+86-18288016826) | Email 405854472@qq.com | Address: Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province / Tieling, Liaoning Province