Chinese coffee producers are considering Bangladesh as new destination to export their products and coffee beans.
“We have been producing the best coffee in China and want to export it to Bangladesh,” said Deng Jialu, manager of Beigui Coffee Company, when a group of Bangladeshi journalist recently visited his coffee garden and production unit in Simao District at Pu'er City of Yunnan Province in China.
The Beigui Coffee Company is the producer of one of the most popular brands in China. It has a number of coffee gardens in 400 hectares of land, accounting for 2.8 per cent of the coffee planting area in Simao District, and an annual output of more than 7,200 tonnes of fresh coffee fruits, accounting for 6.5 per cent of the annual output of fresh coffee fruits in that district.
Deng informed that many international coffee brands like Nestle and Starbucks has been importing coffee beans from his company to supply it across the world.
“We’re looking for new destinations in South and Southeast Asia. Bangladesh could be our next destination as consumption of coffee is rising fast,” he said.
According to Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), an online data visualisation platform on global trade, in 2021, Bangladesh imported $1.53 million in coffee, becoming the 136th largest importer of coffee in the world.
In the same year, coffee was the 792nd most imported product in Bangladesh. Bangladesh imports coffee primarily from Singapore ($650,000), United Arab Emirates ($557,000), United States ($88,700), Netherlands ($46,900), and Australia ($43,500).
According to international research firm Statista, as of June of the coffee crop year 2021/22, China produced around two million 60-kilogram bags of coffee, up from 1.8 million in the previous year. The majority of the coffee produced in China comes from Yunnan Province.
Xinhua reported in October 2022 that the import volume of coffee beans in China reached 122,700 tonnes in 2021, up 74 per cent year-on-year. Since the beginning of that year, the export volume of coffee beans in southwest China's Yunnan Province had reached 18,000 tonnes, with a value of 550 million yuan, up 2.3 times and 3.8 times, respectively.
The products have been exported to the European Union, ASEAN, America, the Middle East and other regions. In June, Pu'er exported more than 300 tonnes of coffee beans to Europe, the first time for the local coffee to be transported to Europe via freight train services.
Nestle, Starbucks, Volcafe and other enterprises have had business cooperation with Yunnan in the coffee industry.
One of the leading coffee producers, Yunnan Simao Beigui Coffee Co Ltd. was established in March 1988.
The supply and marketing cooperatives in Simao District accounted for 75.88 per cent of the shares. The total assets of the company were 40 million yuan. It is a municipal leading enterprise integrating planting, operation and deep processing.
Liao Xiugui, the founder of Xiaowazi Coffee Garden in Pu´er City, another leading producer of coffee beans in Yunnan Province, expressed the same willingness to expand his company’s market in Bangladesh.
“If we get importers from Bangladesh, we will offer our products at a competitive price but without compromising with our standard,” he said.
Liao Xiugui has set up a coffee cafeteria alongside its production unit in the district to offer the original taste of coffee beans from the garden.
“Many visitors come here to take the original taste of coffee,” he said, adding that he has been involved in coffee production for more than 50 years.
