Nestle Inaugurates Coffee Research, Warehouse Facility in China

coffee

Nestle  has launched a coffee center in Yunnan, China, as part of a push to increase coffee production in the traditionally tea-drinking country.


The 300,000 square meter facility, called the Nescafe Coffee Centre (NCC), will combine training facilities and a laboratory with warehousing and processing facilities, the company said Wednesday.

"Nestle is committed to developing coffee farming in Puer, Yunnan, and has reached remarkable achievements and created shared value by working with local government and farmers over the past three decades," John Cheung, chairman and chief executive of Nestle China, said in a statement.

China is often lauded as a key developing market for the coffee industry, with the beverage embraced by an emerging middle class and a young population.

While coffee production and consumption in the country both remain tiny relative to tea, the pace of growth has been rapid. Production is estimated to have doubled over the last five years, according to the International Coffee Organization.

Consumption has also grown at a rate of about 16% per year, the ICO estimated.