Pu erh in May, with layers of emerald green coffee forests dotted with white coffee flowers, the breeze blows by, and the fragrance fills the air.
As a core coffee producing area in China, Pu'er City is closely following the strategic deployment of "100 billion yuan cloud coffee", driven by technological innovation and breakthroughs in key equipment, to break through the bottleneck of the entire chain of planting, initial processing, and deep processing, and promote the industry to accelerate towards standardization, intelligence, and internationalization. The latest data shows that the industrial output value of Pu erh coffee will increase by 79.8% year-on-year in 2025; In the first quarter of 2026, Simao Customs supervised the export of Pu'er coffee worth 110 million yuan, and the products were exported to 19 countries and regions including Germany and Russia, achieving a strong start in both production and output value, and domestic and international circulation.
Entering the Mu Nai River area of Yunnan Simao Industrial Park, the rich aroma of coffee fills the face. In the modern processing workshop of Pu'er Wujin Coffee Co., Ltd., intelligent equipment operates efficiently, accompanied by a smooth and orderly mechanical buzzing sound. Each coffee bean with a bright color is undergoing a precise "transformation": the German PROBAT roasting system precisely controls temperature, and the hanging, canning, and grinding production lines run at full speed. Every 13 minutes, 60 kilograms of high-quality beans complete the magnificent transformation from green beans to products.
The coffee production season of 2025-2026 is coming to an end, and enterprise production and sales remain hot. The phone of Wang Bing, Chairman of Wujin Coffee, keeps ringing, and customers from all over the country are adding orders, resulting in sustained strong market demand. This production season, the company's output reached over 2000 tons, with an output value exceeding 80 million yuan, "Wang Bing introduced. As a leading modern coffee source processing enterprise in the industry, Wujin Coffee focuses on quality improvement and technological upgrading, with an annual comprehensive processing capacity of 8000 tons and a stable technological level among the top in China. It has become the benchmark for the largest production capacity and most advanced technology in the park, and also a microcosm of the profound transformation of Pu'er coffee industry from a "raw material base" to a "deep processing highland".
The flourishing of deep processing cannot be separated from the solid support of front-end planting and initial processing. At Pu'er Fumin Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd. located in Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County, a "equipment revolution" is quietly changing the genes of the coffee industry. Not long ago, the company's independently developed fifth generation "four level sorting peeling and debonding system" made its debut, successfully overcoming the "bottleneck" problem in the processing stage. This core equipment, specially designed for large-scale production of commercial beans, can process 8 tons of fresh coffee fruit per hour, and the daily processing capacity has increased from 20 tons of traditional equipment to 40 tons. The production capacity has doubled and the unit loss has significantly decreased. While greatly improving processing efficiency, it ensures uniform quality of coffee beans through precise grading, effectively promoting the steady increase in the proportion of high-quality beans. "Chen Gang, Chairman of Pu'er Fumin Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd., said that what is more valuable is the" discerning eye "ability of this equipment – it can accurately separate red fruits, black fruits, green fruits, and diseased fruits, and even grade and process the size of red fruits, effectively improving the product quality rate. This domestically produced coffee processing equipment, which combines the advantages of "large production capacity, fine grading, and low loss", is not only highly praised in the domestic market, but also highly sought after in the international market. The product has been sold to Laos, demonstrating the competitiveness of China's intelligent manufacturing.
From the fields to the cups, Pu erh coffee has a strong trend of integrated development throughout the entire chain. Since 2025, Pu'er City has insisted on seeking quality from standards and vitality from finance. The local government has released the national standard "Quality Requirements for Geographical Indication Products – Pu'er Coffee" to lead the standardized development of the industry; Simultaneously establishing a coffee industry equity investment fund and supply chain company injects financial vitality into the entire chain, effectively solving the problem of corporate financing. At the same time, Pu'er City is steadily implementing the "Pu'er Coffee Master" training program for 10000 people, cultivating high-quality coffee plantations, and improving the "enterprise+village collective+coffee farmer" interest linkage mechanism, allowing small farmers to deeply embed themselves in the industrial chain and share value-added benefits. With the emergence of characteristic spaces such as the Menglian boutique coffee block and the "Beautiful Star Village · Fengka Valley", the deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism is expanding the diversified value boundaries of the coffee industry.
From a simple raw material supplier in the past to an industrial highland that now controls advanced processing core technology, has independent international standards, and continuously improves brand premium capabilities, Pu'er coffee is experiencing a wonderful leap from a "good product" to a "good brand".
Yunbao Full Media Reporter Hu Meijun