China's Yunnan has been introduced to coffee for more than a hundred years, and the suitable temperature and microclimate allow Yunnan to produce 98% of the green coffee beans in the mainland region.
According to Yunnan industry statistics, Yunnan produced more than 150,000 tons of small-grain coffee in 2016, and then due to various factors such as market and climate, production began to decline, and the statistics in 2018 were 136,000 tons. Down more than 10%. At present, the mainland region accounts for 1.5% of the world's coffee production. Basically, the current situation of the coffee industry in Yunnan represents the current situation of the coffee industry in the mainland.
Declining production usually means that the relationship between supply and demand is tilted towards the supply side, however, the truth of the fact is that due to the unstable quality, Yunnan small grain coffee is in a weak position in the transaction, and there is no pricing power and discourse power in the international market. Nestlé has long acquired Yunnan coffee at a 10-20 cent/pound pressure price lower than the New York futures price, which is only 1/3 of the Colombian grade of beans. And most of the Yunnan coffee is sold as a unified commodity, and the industrial profits flow to the hands of large food factories and buyers.
A set of data from the "Yunnan Coffee Industry Report" shows that there are more than 300,000 farmers engaged in coffee cultivation in Yunnan Province, involving 1 million coffee farmers. The total annual output value is only 2.59 billion yuan. The average annual income of a coffee farmer is only 2590 yuan.
The series of short films "Diary of a Coffee Man" produced by the blogger "Weekend Coffee Report" of Station B went deep into the coffee producing areas of Yunnan to understand the situation of coffee farmers. Behind the seemingly beautiful scenery of Yunnan coffee is that countless coffee farmers are hesitant to cut down coffee to grow other cash crops after each season. Due to the extensive planting and processing methods, it is destined to lead to the instability of quality, and the vicious circle of price weakness is formed, and the above data results are also available.
The blogger used a video to record the coffee farmers picking coffee with inconsistent maturity in order to quantity, and not taking shelter measures in the open air when it encounters heavy rain, allowing the rain to soak the coffee beans. So the raw, ripe, broken, moldy beans were put into sacks on a sunny day and transported to the hulling station.
These beans will eventually be taken away by big factories such as Starbucks, Nestle, Maxwell and other big factories at extremely low prices, and then appear on their cafes and shelves, becoming our high-priced products.
In addition to the planting method, the degradation of variety resistance is also one of the important reasons for the lack of quality of coffee in Yunnan. At present, the small-grain coffee varieties planted in Yunnan are mainly the Katim series introduced in the 1980s, and after years of single-variety planting, the ability to resist coffee rust (the number one killer of coffee plants) has deteriorated, and the annual production capacity loss caused by coffee rust is as high as more than 30%. In addition to coffee rust, we also have to face insect pests: the spiral skin tianniu and the word-killing tiger tianniu. These two species of celestial cattle can cause plant necrosis and bring devastating blows to the coffee farmers.
Fertilizers have to be applied to control pests and diseases, which further reduces the organic rate of coffee produced. Yunnan coffee organic rate in 2018 is only 5%, boutique rate of 6%. There is a huge gap in the quality of coffee from other well-known producing regions in the world.
Behind the bright-looking, mellow coffee beans are the struggles of countless coffee farmers and monopolistic acquisitions by large factories, as well as unsustainable extensive cultivation. The problems faced by Yunnan coffee have been experienced in Central and South America, which are the main producers of coffee, so at this stage, the coffee produced in these places is no longer only the pursuit of quantity, but the pursuit of quality and brand. In this way, the interests of coffee farmers can be protected under the premise of ensuring that there is no excessive planting to the greatest extent.