What foreign media think about the Chinese coffee market

Coffee started relatively late in China. In the early days, it was only high-spending people or returnees who were interested in having a drink in the cafe. With the passage of time, the domestic coffee market has changed dramatically. As an important part of the world coffee market, China has attracted the attention of foreign media. Let's take a look at the coffee market in the eyes of foreign media!
Recently, foreign media said that coffee is squeezing into the Chinese market, which is dominated by tea culture, and the consumption of coffee here is likely to change from the global bottom to the global leader. China's coffee consumption accounts for less than 2% of the world's total, but this industry has begun to change.
According to a report by the BBC website on July 14, Richard Chien opened a coffee shop in northeast China in 2005. At that time, a group of baristas who had just been out of apprenticeship could make about 900 cups of coffee a day, and the price per cup was 6 yuan-less than 1 dollar in conversion. Ten years later, he operated a senior coffee school in Beijing. There, students spend several hours learning the aroma and tasting skills of coffee beans. The coffee used in the training process costs 6 US dollars (about 40 yuan) per cup.
China's "economy has changed, and people increasingly understand different ways of life." Richard Qian said, "they no longer only have tea in their eyes."
According to the US Department of Agriculture, China ’s coffee consumption has nearly tripled in the past four years, ranking first among all the large markets it tracks. The potential of the Chinese market is also enormous: the country ’s total population is as high as 1.4 billion.
Starbucks is full of confidence in the Chinese market, so it plans to open the first international baking and experience center in Shanghai next year. The company believes that China will become its largest market. The Seattle-based coffee chain already has more than 2,000 stores in China, and they also plan to add 500 stores each year over the next five years. Don Dole, another American coffee chain, announced last year that it will add more than 1,400 stores in the next 20 years, an increase of nearly 100 times.
The report said that the increase in coffee sales proves that China is transitioning to a consumption-driven economy, which is mainly due to the changing consumption intention of the expanding middle class. More and more Chinese people travel abroad, some taste espresso in Japan, and some complete semester papers in American cafes. Unlike their parents, many younger generations in China grew up surrounded by coffee shops.
"It happens to be at the sweet spot of casual family spending." Gao Zicheng, a professor of investment at Peking University, said he co-authored "Understanding Chinese Consumers in One Hour: 5 Short Stories to Understand the Cruel Struggle of 1 Billion Consumers "This book. Many Chinese people think that drinking coffee still seems to be a hobby, but it is a luxury lifestyle that is not far away.
In the slowing growth of the Chinese economy, the demand for other commodities is constantly decreasing, but coffee seems to be a different kind. The country ’s huge population base and almost unexploited markets all contain unprecedented opportunities.
According to data provided by market research company Ou Rui International, the average Chinese person drinks 3 cups of coffee per year, ranking almost at the bottom of the global ranking, only higher than countries like Sudan and North Korea. In comparison, the average American drinks 363 cups of coffee per person per year, and the British also have 250 cups.
Lei Xiaoshan, managing director of China Market Research Group, said that the Chinese desire for coffee "completely changed the global supply chain." Coffee growers need to judge how to produce more coffee beans for them to cater to Chinese tastes. "This has happened before, because the demand exceeds the supply, causing the price of coffee beans to skyrocket, which was not alleviated until the farmers increased their output."
The company estimates that China's coffee consumption will maintain an annual growth rate of about 20%, and Lei Xiaoshan believes that this change is largely attributed to women under the age of 30. "They no longer buy Louis Vuitton bags, but turn their attention to experiential consumption." He said, "Coffee culture is an integral part of it."
According to reports, both taste and cost pose a threat to China's emerging coffee market, especially outside urban areas with higher living standards.
"If you compare a coffee shop in China, especially a high-end coffee shop, with those in California and Boston, you will find that they sell less coffee every day." Peter Ray, a trader at California coffee exporter Royal Coffee Dosevich said, "The rapid growth has not been achieved."
According to reports, to make coffee truly successful in China, regions with fewer tourists must be convinced that coffee can supplement or even replace tea-especially for certain unique coffee varieties.
The US Wall Street Journal website reported that as economic development slows, China ’s commodity demand may be slowing down, but in a country with a tradition of drinking tea, coffee—even if it ’s expensive—is a rare bright spot . Analysts say that driven by changing tastes and the rapid increase in the middle class, demand for other luxury goods, including imported fresh fruit, is also growing rapidly.
According to Rafier Obetti, a food and beverage analyst at BMI Research, coffee represents “a Western lifestyle and is very attractive to the upper class and middle class in the city” compared to tea. , And tea is considered a more traditional beverage.
Taiwan ’s China Times News reported that some coffee experts said that if the mainland people drink 20 cups per year, the price of coffee in the world will triple, indicating that the mainland has a huge influence on global coffee.
In general, in the eyes of foreign media, although the amount of coffee per capita in China is still small, the Chinese coffee market still has great potential.