Value-focused Luckin Coffee is China’s largest branded coffee chain with 18,558 locations | Photo credit: Luckin Coffee

Luckin Coffee has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) to purchase 120,000 tons of coffee from the South American country over the next two years – a deal worth approximately $500m.  
 

“We believe that with the deepening of China-Brazil coffee trade co-operation, Luckin will bring more high-quality Brazilian coffee beans to China, meeting consumers' demand for premium coffee and driving the quality upgrade and mature development of China's coffee industry,” said Guo Jin, CEO,Luckin Coffee. 

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee and has seen its export to China rise significantly over the last 18 months amid soaring demand from its rapidly growing branded coffee shop market, which overtook the US by outlets in 2023 and now exceeds 50,000 stores.  

Chinese purchases of Brazilian coffee more than tripled in 2023 to $280m, jumping from the 20th to the sixth largest buyer of Brazilian coffee globally in a year according to the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil (Cecafé).  

“In 2022, China imported $80m worth of Brazilian coffee, a figure that increased to $280m in 2023. With this new contract, we expect an even greater increase in coffee consumption in China, which currently stands at 15 cups per inhabitant per year. But it can reach 200 cups, like in other Asian countries,” said Jorge Viana, President, ApexBrasil.  

Value-focused Luckin Coffee is China’s largest branded coffee chain with 18,558 locations – many of which are delivery and pick-up only locations. In a bid to sustain its rapid outlet growth, the business began operations at a new 570,000sq ft roasting facility in Suzhou City, Jiangsu, in April 2024.  

The site, which Luckin Coffee says is the largest coffee roasting plant in China, has an annual roasting capacity of 30,000 tons. The coffee chain also operates a factory in Pingnan, Fujian, which can produce 15,000 tons of roasted coffee each year.