YUNNAN, People’s Republic of China – Nescafé Coffee Center (NCC) invested by Nestlé is completed in Puer, Yunnan today. Mr. Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé Group and Ms. Wan Ling Martello, Head of Asia, Oceania and Africa, flew to Puer after the China Development Forum to join the local government, industry leaders,coffee farmers and professionals for the inauguration ceremony.
Meanwhile, Nestlé and College of Tropical Crops, Yunnan AgriculturalUniversity have achieved the strategic cooperation agreement to further deepen cooperation based on mutual benefit and win-win result, and build theircapacity, share knowledge, information and achievements to develop talentpool with solid theoretical base and practical experience for industry growth.
NCC, which covers an area of 30,000 square meters, has two parts. One is the training center and green coffee bean laboratory to provide exchange andtraining opportunities to farmers, agronomists and industry professionals; the second is the quality control lab and warehousing facility. With continuously growing coffee output, NCC will provide processing facilities to ensure coffee bean purchasing, and set purchasing and testing criteria based oninternational standard.
“Nestlé is committed to developing coffee farming in Puer, Yunnan, and has reached remarkable achievements and created shared value by working with local government and farmers over the past three decades”, says John Cheung, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé China.
“NCC integrates training, technical support, lab and modern warehousing, and thus promotes the effort for win-win result to a higher level. It builds us a larger platform for cooperation, exchange and sharing with research institutions andthe whole industry.”
Promote further development of coffee industry
2016 is the first year of the 13th Five-Year Plan, and green eco-agriculture has been set as one of the priorities of national development. Promotingagricultural modernization and accelerating transformation of agricultural development patterns has been the direction agreed by regions to build modern agriculture.
The coffee industry, with nearly 30 years’ development, has been a leading industry of Yunnan, especially Puer, which is known as the Coffee Capital ofChina. The NCC is built to greatly help further promote the industry in thefuture.
“Nestlé has made great contributions to coffee farming in Puer, and created shared value”, says Lu Han, Director of Coffee Office, Puer, “The newly built NCC offers a new and larger cooperation platform for industry growth, and will promote the quality and efficiency of the value chain that covers farming to distribution, improve further industry integration, and promote Puer coffee’scompetitiveness and its reputation on global market.”
Carry out the principle of Creating Shared Value
Nestlé has been committed to creating shared value since its first entering into Yunnan in 1988, and continues to work with the local government and farmers to promote industry development.
To do this, Nestlé has so far sent 6 foreign coffee professionals to Puer to provide training in field management, processing technology and best practice to more than 15,000 farmers. Such efforts helped improve local farmers’ production capacity, livelihood and international competitiveness.
Mr. Paul Bulcke says that Nestlé targets long-term growth. 2016 is the company’s 150th anniversary. China as a key market is now enjoying an increasingly important position in Nestlé’s global strategic development plan.
The newly built NCC supports Nestlé’s commitment to China, and will serve as a platform for carrying out the principle of Creating Shared Value.
NCC is part of shared development strategy under Nescafé Plan, which was initiated in 2010.
The program plans to invest RMB 2.6 billion (US$400 million) around the world for the company’s coffee projects by 2020, and offer technical support to coffee farmers when increasing direct purchasing volume, and promote local coffee industry for efficient and modernized production of premium coffee
