Yunnan's "China's No.1 Coffee Village": Breaking Market Deadlock Through Specialty Strategy

In his own coffee plantation, Xie Xianwen carefully observed the coffee trees that were about to bloom for the second time, deeply concerned about the potential reduction in coffee bean yield and quality. Four consecutive years of drought in Yunnan and declining international coffee futures prices have shaken the Chinese coffee market.

China's No.1 Coffee Village

Xinzhai Village, situated at the foot of Yunnan's Gaoligong Mountains, is renowned as "China's No.1 Coffee Village." Xie Xianwen is both a "coffee farmer" in Xinzhai Village and the head of a local medium-sized coffee production company.

On April 19, our reporter team arrived at Xinzhai Village in Lujiangba, located beneath the Gaoligong Mountains in Baoshan City, Yunnan. Upon entering Xinzhai Village, the eye is greeted by vast expanses of coffee plantations, stretching continuously from the banks of the Nujiang River halfway up the Gaoligong Mountains, with occasional tall longan trees visible among the coffee fields. Here, we met Xie Xianwen.

The Gaoligong Mountains are situated in the Nujiang Grand Canyon and are known as the "World Natural Museum" and "World Species Gene Pool." Xie Xianwen told our reporter, "Because of the Gaoligong Mountains' elevation of over 4,000 meters and the humid, hot climate of the Nujiang Grand Canyon, Lujiangba experiences 'four seasons in one mountain, different weather every ten miles,' making it one of China's rare subtropical hot valleys. This is also a unique advantage for growing Arabica coffee."

A Rich Coffee Heritage

Xie Xianwen told our reporter, "In the mid-1950s, patriotic overseas Chinese Liang Jinshan introduced the first coffee seedling to Baoshan City from Southeast Asia. By the 1960s, educated youth supporting the frontier regions began large-scale coffee cultivation in Lujiangba, with most of the harvest being submitted to the state at that time."

By the early 1990s, Yunnan had become China's largest coffee export base, with its export volume accounting for 95% of the national total. During this period, Xinzhai villagers cut down almost all crops except coffee and planted coffee instead. Xie Xianwen explained that now Xinzhai's coffee planting area has reached over 12,000 mu, with an annual coffee bean output of nearly 1,000 tons, 60% of which is exported abroad. It is precisely for this reason that Xinzhai is known as "China's No.1 Coffee Village."

Triumph Over Adversity

Xie Xianwen also began his coffee industry journey during this trend. "In 2000, I resigned from my job to help my family grow coffee. In those years, coffee prices were quite good, and our family indeed made money."

Xie Xianwen, with his keen economic sense, saw that raw coffee prices were severely affected by futures markets, so he invited a partner to start coffee deep processing. "Although the scale wasn't large, the business was quite good."

Just as Xie Xianwen's coffee business was gradually growing, Yunnan encountered a severe drought in 2010. That year, 90% of coffee trees in Xinzhai Village had no harvest, and Xie Xianwen lost over 500,000 yuan. Many villagers began to hesitate, preparing to abandon coffee cultivation.

Xie Xianwen was reluctant to give up his coffee business. Fortunately, although the coffee trees had no harvest, they did not die. Also in 2010, the government invested 12 million yuan to build a stone-paved road and water conservancy facilities supporting coffee cultivation for Xinzhai Village. Xie Xianwen began encouraging coffee farmers to prioritize quality and also urged villagers to drink coffee themselves. "If you don't drink it yourself, how can you grow good coffee beans?" Instant coffee.

"Now, the impact of drought on our Xinzhai coffee cultivation is decreasing year by year. This year, our village's normal coffee harvest reached over 80%."

This year, Xinzhai's coffee cultivation industry has resisted the drought assault. However, bountiful coffee harvests in most global coffee-growing regions once again depressed international coffee futures, creating enormous difficulties for Yunnan's coffee cultivation. Facing this predicament, Xie Xianwen's path toward specialty coffee began to show results. Xie Xianwen told our reporter, "As long as quality is guaranteed, our purchase price can still increase. This year's futures purchase price is around 15 yuan, but high-quality beans can still sell for around 30 yuan."

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