February 2010

Coffee regions / Corporate coffee

Coffee growing in China

When you hear “China” and “coffee” mentioned in the same sentence, it is usually regarding the booming coffee market in the traditionally tea-drinking country. Less well-known is the fact that coffee is actually grown in China. It is predominantly low-quality arabica used in instant coffee, grown in full sun using high chemical inputs, and the Chinese government is aggressively promoting the expansion of thousands of hectares of coffee production.

Background
While some robusta coffee is grown in China, in Fujian province and on Hainan Island, this post will focus on arabica coffee grown in Yunnan province.

Coffee has been grown in Yunnan since the late 1800s, but on a relatively small scale. There was a resurgence in the late 1960s, but today’s Chinese coffee revival was orchestrated in the 1980s by the Chinese government, the United Nations, and at least one large multinational roaster. Very high import tariffs combined with millions of potential new coffee consuming customers has prompted roasters to source coffee from within the country.

How coffee is grown in China
Coffee is grown in Yunnan in several regions: Dehong, BaoShan, Simao, and Ruili, mostly in western Yunnan along the border with Myanmar. Elevation ranges from 900 to 1600 meters, generally around 1100 to 1200 m. Coffee farms range from small producers and large state-run or privately-owned plantations of over 2000 ha.

All the photographs I have seen of coffee growing in China has been sun coffee. Here is a photo of the 1200 ha ManLao River Plantation in the Simao region.

Organic coffee production in China is virtually unknown. China seriously over-uses fertilizers, with coffee being one recipient. A recent paper looking at different fertilization regimes for coffee in Yunnan province [1] concluded that “higher than routinely applied levels of fertilization are required to optimize coffee plants photosynthetic acclimation and growth” — and photosynthetic acclimation, the paper explains, means the ability to withstand full sun.

High fertilizer inputs are not the only problem. While I was able to find no data relating  specifically to coffee, China is the world’s largest user and producer (and exporter) of pesticides, used once again to increase yield, at a huge cost to the environment and human health.

Expansion, deforestation, and biodiversity
Whereas China only produced about 3600 tons of coffee in 1997, in 2009 this figure breached 28,000 tons on 2000 ha. In China’s usual grand form, the plan is to increase the coffee production area to 16,000 ha in the next 15 years. China is already suffering from severe deforestation, and it is a serious problem in Yunnan province. A paper discussing conservation there noted, “The most immediate source of wealth in Yunnan is the rapid liquidation of existing natural resources, particularly forests” [2].

The Yunnan Hogood (or Hogu) Coffee Company, for instance, planted nearly 4500 ha as of 2007, and this company alone plans to have over 13,000 ha in production by 2012. They are to begin exporting coffee to the U.S. this year. They have contracted with 30,000 farmers, and while a government web site (now defunct) stated that Yunnan Hogood is making these farmers rich, their per capita annual income is $454. This may very well be an improvement over previous incomes (Yunnan is one of China’s poorest areas), but it is still under the poverty level for China. Nestlé also touts that their investment in technical assistance to farmers and their purchases provide steady income to local farmers. This is probably true, but if farmers were being helped to produce high-quality specialty coffee, their incomes would be much greater.

All this land conversion is taking place in one of the most biodiverse regions in China. Yunnan comprises only 4% of China’s total area, but has more than 18,000 plant species and 1836 vertebrates (over 800 are birds); 112 of China’s bird species only occur in Yunnan [3]. The Yunnan mountains are designated as an important endemic bird area by BirdLife International, where they state that “loss of forest land here appears to be by far the worst in China.” One of the restricted range birds found here is the near-threatened Yunnan Nuthatch, shown on the stamp, another is the endemic White-spectacled Laughingthrush. More fabulous birds of Yunnan can be seen on the great photoblog of John and Jemi Holmes.

Specialty coffee

China’s arabica coffee is nearly all the catimor variety, which has some resistance to coffee rust due to the robusta genes in its background; it is generally considered low-quality and not specialty grade. Some older varieties do exist but are often plagued by rust and not being promoted.

A few specialty coffee roasters have a presence in China, despite the challenge of finding high-quality coffee and faced with consumers who overwhelmingly drink instant coffee (see below). Starbucks has over 700 stores in the country, and sources its coffee from producers in Baoshan*. The South of the Clouds blend includes Chinese-grown coffee and has been offered in cafes in China. That debut came with a remark from a Starbucks spokesman that the company would “ultimately” like to export Chinese coffee worldwide. However, supply currently isn’t high (or good?) enough to even put together a Chinese single origin offering (the South of the Clouds blend contains beans from other countries), and export is dependent on developing a source of “superpremium” arabica beans.

Other North American roasters with cafes in China include Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Canada’s Blenz Coffee. Roasters from other countries are there as well, all working to steer a tea-drinking culture towards fresh ground coffee.

The role of instant coffee and Nestlé

Nestlé is the big player in China, sourcing all of its Chinese-marketed Arabica coffee from within the country since 1997 and controlling nearly half the entire market share in the country. The coffee Nestlé produces and sells in China is instant coffee, which is typically the most palatable to consumers in tea-drinking nations and dominates Chinese consumption. Add in Kraft’s instant coffee, and these two companies represent 70% of the Chinese coffee market.

Nestlé has invested over $5 million in technical assistance to farmers in Yunnan province. They have sourced all their arabica beans from inside China since 1997 (probably blending with robusta), and in 2006 introduced 100% Yunnan coffee in their in-country NESCAFÉ instant coffee. Given Starbucks’ inability to source a single origin Chinese coffee, this could mean Nestlé has tied up a lot of producers, leases or owns their own plantations, or the beans they source are only suitable for instant. Many of the Chinese NESCAFÉ products aren’t just coffee, but pre-packaged coffee, sugar, and creamer, which are very popular in China. You don’t need good quality coffee for these beverages!  For more on the lack of sustainability and quality in instant coffee, see my previous post.

Coffee crisis, round 2?
One need only look next door to Vietnam to see what a no-holds-barred coffee production policy can do to world coffee prices and farmer livelihoods worldwide and the environment. Unfortunately, nearly all the same elements that precipitated the catastrophic coffee crisis of the late 1990s are once again in place: world development agencies and a national government encouraging and subsidizing the planting of huge amounts of coffee which could lead to a glut in supply, large multinational roasters eager to have a source of cheap mediocre coffee, and poor rural minority farmers hoping to get rich. As we have learned, a drop in world coffee prices due to oversupply from Asia means people and habitats suffer all over the world.

Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

*In late 2025, Starbucks divested itself of the majority of its stake in China. See these two stories by Reuters.

[1] Cai, C.-T., Z.-Q. Cai, T.-Q. Yao, and X. Qi. 2007. Vegetative growth and photosynthesis in coffee plants under different watering and fertilization managements in Yunnan, SW China. Photosynthetica 45:455-461.

[2] Lan, D. and R. Dunbar. 2000. Bird and mammal conservation in Gaoligongshan Region and Jingdong County, Yunnan, China: patterns of species richness and nature reserves. Oryx 34:275-286.

[3] Yang, Y., K. Tian, J. Hao, S. Pei, and Y. Yank. 2004. Biodiversity and biodiversity conservation in Yunnan, China. Biodiversity and Conservation 13:813-826.

Coffee news and miscellany / Coffee-related products / Corporate coffee

Sustainable instant coffee

I’ve been asked more than once about a source of sustainably-grown instant coffee. My usual reply is that there isn’t one. Understanding how instant coffee is manufactured will illustrate why the majority of the coffee beans that are used to make it are low-quality commodity coffee, and thus not a good option for consumers looking for coffee grown in an environmentally-friendly manner.

How instant coffee is made
Green coffee is brought to large manufacturing plants, often in the country of origin. Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico are the largest producers of instant coffee. At the factory, the coffee is roasted in large batches and ground. It then goes through multiple extractions using hot water under pressure. The resulting liquid is filtered and concentrated. Finally, the concentrated extract is dehydrated by either spray drying or freeze drying. Spray drying, in which the extract is spewed into an enormous tower and blasted by hot air, produces a fine powder. This powder must be “agglomerated” (other materials added to create familiar-looking granules that flow and dissolve more freely). Freeze drying creates clumps that resemble ground coffee, but the process is more expensive.

These production processes rob the coffee of most of the aroma. This is reintroduced by various combinations of natural or synthetic compounds, typically mixed with some type of oil, which are put back on the coffee particles prior to packaging in a process known as “replating.”

Why low-quality beans are used
The final goal of a specialty coffee roaster is great taste in the cup. To that end, they want carefully grown beans, processed properly at the mill, expertly roasted to bring out the best nuances of that particular bean.

The final goal of instant coffee is convenience. All the technology is aimed at leaching out all the water-soluble compounds to produce a product that looks and feels like coffee, but is quick and convenient to prepare.

This is the primary reason that low-quality beans are used for instant coffee: higher-quality beans with good flavor profiles would be used for the roast-and-ground market. Another way low-quality beans end up in instant coffee is because most countries don’t allow their lowest quality beans to be exported. Since instant coffee is often produced in the country of origin, it can be the final resting place of non-exportable beans.

Finally, instant coffees from the big corporate roasters such Nescafè’s Taster’s Choice (Nestlè), Maxwell House (Kraft), and Folgers (Smuckers) all contain robusta beans. Robusta is the lower-growing species of coffee (Coffea canephora) that is grown in large full-sun plantations. In some markets, some of these brands are 100% robusta (spray-dried instants are more likely to be all-robusta). In addition to the negative environmental impact of robusta plantations, these beans are considered inferior quality. To make robusta palatable, it generally must be steamed or treated in some way.

The big roasters not only use robusta, they will use very low-quality robusta. This article from Nestlè (a downloaded copy, since removed from their site)– incredibly boasting about quality — notes that they buy “coffee beans having eight percent to 16 percent triage.” Triage coffee, for the unsuspecting, is all the moldy beans, broken beans, sticks, stones, insect-damaged or rotten beans…all the stuff that is rejected or sorted out at the mill! [1].

The world’s largest producer of robusta is Vietnam, where it has been noted, “Wherever coffee was grown, forests have disappeared.” Brazil also grows a lot of robusta, but the variety grown there, called Conillon, is higher-priced than African- or Asian-sourced robusta. Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is another major exporter. Côte d’Ivoire is the most biodiverse nation in west Africa, but has suffered severe deforestation and fragmentation, in part due to mass plantings of coffee and cacao in the late 1980s. Because of the time lag between environmental destruction and biodiversity loss (known as “extinction debt”), it has been projected that Côte d’Ivoire may still lose a third of its primate species.

In addition to being cheap, an additional motivation for manufacturers to use robusta is that it has a higher extraction rate than arabica. The rule of thumb is that it takes 2.6 kg of green beans to produce 1 kg of instant coffee. Manufacturers get a higher proportion of soluble materials out of robusta.

The authors of The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop put instant coffee in historical context:

“If in retrospect the coffee industry appeared to be out of its collective mind in pursuing the race for low quality, it is worth remembering that this blind love affair with consistency and technology was part of a larger cultural embrace of a mass-market modernism … Instant coffee was created by the same technophila that later produced technified cultivation systems.”

My mantra is generally that when it comes to the environment or farmers’ livelihoods, there is no such thing as “cheap” coffee. In the case of instant coffee, the cost of convenience and low consumer prices nearly always includes habitat loss and crappy proceeds to farmers.

One exception may be the new Starbucks VIA Ready Brew.  The majority of Starbucks beans are sourced under their C.A.F.E. Practices supplier guidelines (with a 100% goal by 2015), which use 24 criteria based on over 200 social and environmental indicators. I’ve received no confirmation so far that the beans used in VIA are part of this program.

[1] For a couple of discussions on how the use of this extremely poor quality coffee drags down the entire coffee industry, see this statement to Congress by the former SCAA director (scroll down halfway) and the post and comments on this blog post by Sweet Maria’s Tom Owen.

Photo from iStockphoto.

Birds and other biodiversity

Know Your Coffee Birds page

I recently posted the ninth account in the "Know Your Coffee Birds" series, this one on the Rufous-capped Warbler. This series provides mini-profiles of bird species that are commonly found on shade coffee farms, focusing on their use of coffee farms and why these farms are important to them. 

I've now put together a page that lists all the published accounts, as well as species that I anticipate writing up in the future. I'll update it whenever a new account is added.

Know Your Coffee Birds

Birds and other biodiversity / Know Your Coffee Birds series

Know your coffee birds: Rufous-capped Warbler

The Rufous-capped Warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons) is found through much of Central America, north through Mexico. This species is occasionally found in the southwestern U.S., when it creates a sensation among birders.

This warbler is a common resident of shade coffee farms all year long, where it can be the dominant foliage-gleaning species. This is a foraging method where birds pick off insects from the upper and undersides of leaves. Many birds that occupy coffee farms make the most use out of remaining forested patches, the canopy trees, and associated epiphytes — thus the importance of shade-grown coffee to birds. Rufous-capped Warblers are in the minority in that they also forage within the coffee layer as well.

Two of my former Rouge River Bird Observatory student volunteers co-authored a paper on Rufous-capped Warbler foraging habits on a shade coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico [1]. They knew from previous research that many resident species like the warbler that use shade coffee move to other habitats once wintering migrants from North America arrive, perhaps to reduce competition. Rufous-capped Warblers stay put, but shift from their foraging in all the layers of vegetation to focusing on the coffee and shrub understory in the winter. This is also likely due to competition for resources, since many North American migrants prefer to forage in the canopy layer.

This shift to lower foraging heights was in evidence when we visited Finca Esperanza Verde in Nicaragua, where we caught multiple Rufous-capped Warblers in the coffee production area, including the one photographed above.

This is just another example of the complex interactions between resident and migratory birds in the tropics, an intricate dance coordinated over thousands of years of evolution. The Rufous-capped Warbler has adapted well to shade coffee production. Let’s drink shade-grown coffee, and keep them around.

[1] Seasonal shift in the foraging niche of a tropical avian resident: resource competition at work? Jedlicka, J., R., Greenberg, I. Perfecto, S. M. Philpott, and T. V. Dietsch. 2006. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22:385-395.

Photo by Darrin O’Brien, all rights reserved, used with permission.