Chongqing overtakes Shanghai to become largest coffee trade hub in China

Southwestern province exceeded coffee trade by volume of both Shanghai and Yunnan at the end of 2017 as Chinese coffee consumption continues to rise

Chongqing Coffee Exchange announced this week that the volume of coffee trade between June 2016 and the end of 2017 reached 9.7bn yuan (£1.1bn).

Commenting on the milestone, general manager of the trade body, Peng De, said that it was the municipality’s goal to become the third-largest coffee trading centre in the world after London and New York:

“The advantages of advanced logistics and service, and the good quality and output of coffee produced in neighbouring Yunnan Province will help the municipality realise its goal", he said.

Chongqing’s meteoric rise to become the centre of the Chinese coffee trade largely been facilitated by the province’s ‘belt and road’ programme. Improved rail infrastructure now means that it takes just 13 days for beans to arrive in Duisberg, Germany, from Chongqing by rail – 30 days less than sea and at a fifth of the cost of air freight.

Coffee consumption in China has maintained robust growth year-on-year at an average growth rate of 20 per cent per year.  Domestic coffee consumption in what by some measures is already the world’s largest economy is expected to reach more than 600bn yuan by 2020.