China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Famed tea hub’s hillsides now yield rich coffee, too
Though some coffee enthusiasts in China might never have an opportunity to visit a coffee farm in Ethiopia or Jamaica, a visit to such a farm in Southwest China’s Pu’er, Yunnan province, is easily within reach.
That’s right — coffee farms in Pu’er.
For although tea has long been Pu’er’s cornerstone industry, with 139,000 hectares of tea plantations and 1.1 million tea farmers, and though the name Pu’er has become synonymous with the area’s dark tea, coffee is gaining ground, and a name for itself, in the region.
That’s because Pu’er, due to its climate and geography, is blessed with a unique combination of factors that make it conducive to growing tea leaves as well as coffee beans.
Pu’er, in the remote frontier of Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, has long been known for its fermented dark tea.
The area has been a tea distribution and trade center since the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In those days, tea was carried by local horse caravans to Lhasa to be exchanged for such things as furs and medicinal ingredients. The caravans would then continue to Nepal, Myanmar and India, and this was how the famed Tea Horse Road came about.
Today, Pu’er is also a coffee production and trade center, with China’s largest coffee-bean growing area, highest output and best quality, according to Yunnan’s agriculture and rural affairs department.
“Pu’er is indeed a unique place, where both coffee and tea cultivation thrive,” said Wang Changjiang, a former agronomist for the Starbucks coffee farmer support center in Pu’er.
“Pu’er has a warm, humid subtropical highland climate. It is located in the golden area of coffee production, in the same latitude as world-famous coffee production areas like Jamaica and Colombia,” Wang said.
“Coffee is typically grown in tropical regions, requiring ample sunlight,” Wang added. “Tea, on the other hand, thrives in tropical to subtropical regions but can tolerate shade and does not require intense sunlight, preferring diffused light instead.”
Pu’er, it so happens,“lies at the juncture of tropical and subtropical zones”, he said.
More than 98 percent of China’s domestic coffee is produced in Yunnan, and half of that comes from Pu’er, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The rise of coffee in Pu’er didn’t happen overnight, but began in 1892 when a French missionary planted the first coffee seed in a village there. After that, coffee was planted on a small scale, Wang said.
In 1952, experts from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences distributed coffee seeds to farmers, marking the beginning of largescale coffee cultivation in Yunnan.
Then, in the 1980s, as part of poverty alleviation efforts, the United Nations Development Programme introduced a large number of experts to promote coffee cultivation in the province, and international coffee giants such as Nestle and Starbucks arrived.
By 2023, Pu’er had 250,000 coffee farmers and 45,000 hectares of coffee plantations, generating a comprehensive output value of 6.3 billion yuan ($875.6 million).
Between 2020 and 2022, JD.com said, its sales of Yunnan coffee increased sixfold.
And so, in addition to Pu’er’s longtime appeal to tea enthusiasts, the area is now attracting those who are passionate about coffee.
Luo Xiaoshu, a woman from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region who is in her 40s, is a good example of a tourist with a passion for coffee who has journeyed to Pu’er for an immersive cultural experience. In exchange for room and board at the Pu’er Aini coffee plantation, Luo served for one month as a coffee apprentice, picking coffee beans, making coffee and receiving guests.
Pu’er has become a magnet for such travelers by leveraging its rich heritage in both tea and coffee.
During the recent eight-day Spring Festival holiday, a record 2.86 million people visited Pu’er, generating tourism income totaling 3 billion yuan, according to Pu’er authorities.
The inauguration of the ChinaLaos Railway in December 2021 has made traveling to Pu’er much more convenient.
Previously, reaching Pu’er required a rigorous journey. Visitors would first go to Kunming, followed by a sixhour bus ride to Pu’er. The ChinaLaos Railway has slashed travel time from Kunming to Pu’er to just over two hours.
In ancient times, horse bells resounded throughout the rugged terrain as the prized Pu’er tea embarked on its voyage along the Tea Horse Road. Today, the shrill whistle of high-speed trains announces the arrival of global coffee merchants and tourists.
“With the railway in operation, the number of merchants and visitors exploring Pu’er’s coffee origins has surged,” said He Yuejun, manager of the Pu’er Aini plantation.
Zheng Hongwei, founder of Gushan Cultural-Tourism Technology Co, is among the investors capitalizing on Pu’er’s potential. Establishing a Chinese coffee plantation brand and elevating Pu’er coffee’s profile are the goals of Zheng and his colleagues at the River Valley coffee plantation, at which at least 50 percent of employees are from local communities.
Collaborative efforts with local villagers include providing guests with local fruits, including oranges and tangerines, avocados and pineapples, as well as other agricultural products, and jointly establishing homestays.
This has bolstered residents’ income through production, homestay revenue and other tourism-related activities.
“Our ambition is to transform the coffee plantation into a coffee village, infusing rural revitalization with cultural tourism,” Zheng said.