Economic Watch: Brazil's specialty coffee industry eyes Chinese market

A staff member prepares coffee during the Sao Paulo Coffee Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 23, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Tiancong)

"We know that China is a country that has a huge potential. It is the largest consumer market in the world but not yet the largest consumer of coffee, but it surely will be," said an industry insider at the Sao Paulo Coffee Festival.

SAO PAULO, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Coffee industry insiders at the Sao Paulo Coffee Festival, held here from June 23 to 25, were optimistic about the prospect of the Chinese specialty coffee market.

The three-day festival attracted coffee lovers and companies from Brazil and abroad to enjoy the feast, bringing consumers abundant experiences related to coffee, including music, art and gastronomy.

Noting "specialty coffees are very people-oriented," Caio Fontes, director of the Sao Paulo Coffee Festival, told Xinhua that coffee is in Brazil's culture and has a "very emotional and social connection in Brazil."

The event aimed at spreading the information and knowledge of specialty coffee to more people, as Brazil is the world's largest coffee exporter and one of the best coffee producers, Fontes added.

Helcio Junior, the co-founder of Brazilian specialty coffee producer Unique Cafes, which has been established 15 years ago and already entered the Chinese market with continuous export growth, said the cooperation between China and Brazil is "fundamental."

Junior said that Unique Cafes attends trade fairs and expos in China every year in order to understand the market better. "For a gigantic market like China, we have basic coffees and fine and specialty coffees."

A staff member presents a cup of coffee during the Sao Paulo Coffee Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 23, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Tiancong)

Santa Monica is a coffee producer from the southern region of Minas Gerais State with a history of cooperating with China. Marcelo Moscofian, CEO of Santa Monica, told Xinhua that China is "a great market" and the business cooperation will be "much bigger in the future."

"We started exporting coffees in 2018 and the Chinese market has always been a market that we wanted to export to, because of its volume and because it's a very new market for coffee," he said.

Santa Monica sent a business delegation to China in 2019 and signed an MOU with the Chinese partner on opening a roasting plant in China to carry out the whole production process.

"We know that China is a country that has a huge potential. It is the largest consumer market in the world but not yet the largest consumer of coffee, but it surely will be," Moscofian said.

Jeffery Young, another industry insider who believed the future of China's specialty coffee market is very promising, said that China is "a massive opportunity on the world stage for coffee."

Young, the founder and CEO of London-based Allegra Group, and also the brand owner of Sao Paulo Coffee Festival, praised the sound development of China's specialty coffee sector over the past five years in terms of barista culture, latte making skills and automated equipment.

The company planned to launch a coffee festival in Beijing or Shanghai which "could be the biggest worldwide," he said, adding that a Beijing or a Shanghai coffee festival could be "a real game changer for the world" and Allegra Group "would like to be involved."