PUER, China — On Sept. 21, the occasion of World Coffee Day, Nescafé, the world’s leading coffee brand, also celebrates its 80th anniversary.
Puer farmers, government representatives and Nestle employee representatives from all around China gathered at the Nescafé Coffee Center to feel the unique fun of coffee, experience the coffee planting techniques and the sweat and joy of harvest of coffee growers.
At the site, Nestle officially announced “Nestle Farmer Children Scholarship” 2019 to escort the young people into the new school year.
Nestle has established a scholarship program in Yunnan since 2013 to encourage children of the local coffee growers to receive high-level professional education. In order to encourage the long-term development of the local coffee industry, priority will be given to students majoring in agriculture-related majors in the scholarship granting, with an aim to reward coffee farmers for their contribution to the development of the local coffee industry.
Under the support of the Next Generation Working Committee of Puer City, the scholarship will be fully funded by Nestle and jointly implemented by the China Women’s Development Foundation, the Puer City Women’s Federation and Nestle. Nestle Scholarship with an amount of RMB5,000/year/person will be targeted at the undergraduate and junior college students, while the outstanding students may receive the funding up to 4 years.
In the past five years, Nestle Scholarship has been granted for a total of more than 140 person-times and continuously benefited local coffee growers, to help students in Yunnan successfully complete their studies.
Lu Han, director of the Puer Tea and Coffee Industry Bureau, said, “The Nestle Scholarship Program has been launched in Puer for five years. In the past five years, we are delighted to see that the children of a lot of coffee farmers have successfully completed their studies and mastered skills to contribute to their motherland.
I am very grateful to Nestle for its efforts to prosper the Puer coffee industry and cultivate future talents.”
The activity also arranged a coffee workshop link which brought a lot of fun. During the activity, Quality Head of Nestle showed the entire process from coffee baking to cupping.
The Puer coffee farmers got the opportunity to experience the job of a barista and made delicious coffee drink out of their own coffee. Many of them, although having dealt with coffee every day, made this popular drink globally for the first time. A farmer who has been growing coffee for many years said after the experience, “The taste is great!”
In the afternoon, Nestle employee representatives had a wonderful moment in visiting the coffee planting base of the local farmers to review the development of 4C coffee in Yunnan.
Rik Wang, Head of Nescafé Coffee Center, said, “For 80 years, Nescafé has been committed to providing a high quality coffee experience for consumers around the world. We hope to say out our love for coffee together with coffee lovers all over the world on this meaningful World Coffee Day, and express our respect for nature and for the hardships of coffee growers. We hope more people may fall in love with coffee and enjoy this drink.”
