Overseas journey of Pu'er coffee

Over 100 years ago, a French missionary brought Yunnan the first Arabica coffee tree of African origin, starting coffee cultivation in Chinese mainland.

Thanks to its favorable environment and climate, southwest Yunnan’s Pu'er city began growing Arabica coffee in 1956. Thick, fragrant, slightly sour and oily, the Pu'er coffee is dubbed as “a taste from hills and woods afar”. It is favored by Chinese and overseas consumers alike.

Last June, 307 tons of raw coffee beans were delivered to Europe from this factory behind me.

Loaded in12 containers an international freight train, the coffee beans set off from Pu'er via the China-Laos railway. After arriving in Chongqing, they were transported through Alataw Port and sent to Europe. These are the Pu'er coffee beans first exported by railway.

Actually, these coffee beans had gone through "physical check-up" before boarding international freight train. Let's have a look at the check-up steps.

Wang Han, deputy chief of General Operation Department in Simao Customs said "On receiving the message from the enterprise, we will send the supervision officers to the site for inspection. The coffee bean samples will be sent to the National Key Laboratory for testing. The laboratory staff will test the quality, moisture, impurities, defect rate and pollutants of the coffee beans, and we will issue the Certificate of Inspection and Quarantine according to the laboratory's test report."

Wang Hai, general manager of Pu'er Nestle Coffee Center said "In the past,our coffee beans were mostly exported by sea. We transported coffee beans to Kunming by truck, then to the wharf by train. Now the China-Laos trains has cutthe transportation costs a lot, savingus some 100 yuan in transporting eachton by train. Ouryearly freight volumes vary from 7,000 tonsto 10,000. Also, train transportation is much safer, and that is why I prefer to this means of transport. Last year, we transported coffee beans directly from Pu'er to Russia by train, and the whole journey only lasted 15-16 days, some 20 days shorter than shipping."

In 2022, the planting area of Pu'er coffee reached 45,267 hectares, and 15,000 tons of raw coffee beans were exported at 460 million yuan. They were mainly exported to 17 countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Korea and Thailand. Using China-Laos Railway well, Pu'er is spreading the name of "Coffee Capital" further while keeping the fame of "Pu'er Tea".

Source: Pu'er Media Center; Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi