BEIJING – The Yunnan Province in Southwest China, the country’s biggest coffee producing area has plans to invest RMB 3 billion (US$500 million) in its coffee industry in the next ten years, said Xiong Xiangru, head of the Coffee Association of Yunnan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The province plans to use most of the investment to improve soil quality, build R&D centres and to fund coffee growing training, according to the report.
The province aims to increase its annual output of coffee beans to 200,000 metric tons (3.3 million bags) by 2020 from the current 38,000 metric tons.
The local government will boost its plantation area of coffee to 1 million Mu in five years from the currently 500,000 Mu, which now accounts for 98% of China’s total.
Starbucks Corp, an international coffee chain operator, on Nov. 12 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pu’er Municipal Government of Yunnan Province and the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Science to build its first global coffee base and research and development centre for coffee in the province to meet rising population of coffee drinkers and improve the quality of coffee beans in the country.
Source: commodityonline.com
