China’s coffee market reaches its full potential
Starbucks Reserve Roastery [Photo/Wikimedia Commons]
Howard Schultz, the founder of the American coffee brand Starbucks, recently visited Shanghai and talked about the brand’s early expansion into the Chinese mainland market while communicating with faculty and students at Fudan University’s School of Management.
“In 2006, there were fewer than 500 Starbucks stores on the Chinese mainland. Now, Starbucks has expanded to over 800 cities across the mainland, with more than 7,000 stores and over 1,000 in Shanghai alone. This number also makes Shanghai the city with the most Starbucks stores globally,” Schultz said.
According to the “2023 China Urban Coffee Development Report,” the scale of China’s coffee industry is expected to reach 369.3 billion yuan by 2025. As the city with the most cafes globally, Shanghai’s vibrant coffee consumption is evident in its over 8,500 cafes.
On a weekday morning, Yongkang Road, Shanghai’s famous “Coffee Street,” awakens to the aroma of coffee. Ms. Yang, who is in her fifties, met with her friends at a flower-themed cafe.
Each coffee cup is adorned with a seasonal flower, such as a rose or lily, mixing the scent of coffee with the fragrance of flowers. “Drinking coffee is a necessary step in socializing. Our life has become more inseparable from cafes,” said Yang.
Facing consumers' increasing demands for high-quality coffee, businesses keep developing new products and introducing flavors with regional cultural characteristics. At the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the "Shanghai" blend, tailored specifically for the city's taste, has become a hit. Besides, one can taste the latest exclusive coffee infused with a hint of olive oil.
Shi Jun, Secretary-General of the Coffee Professional Committee of the Shanghai Food Association, said that the personalized cafes in Shanghai have become a beautiful urban landscape.
Cafes that promote intangible cultural heritage or themed around fashion, comics, and doll toys are easily found. There are also some cafes featuring regional characteristics and are ideal places to take pictures.
Bai Ming, a member of the Ministry of Commerce’s Research Institute, believed that as China’s economy evolves, Chinese consumers’ changing demands echo the diversification and differentiation in consumption behaviors.
A report by research institution World Coffee Portal showed that in 2023, the number of cafes serving freshly ground coffee on the Chinese mainland increased by 58%, with the total approaching 50,000, making it the country with the most branded coffee stores globally.
Shi noted that Luckin Coffee, Starbucks, and Kudi are the top three coffee brands in terms of store numbers in the Shanghai market.
“The high-quality development of the coffee industry allows more people to enjoy great coffee and benefit from its leisure, social, and cultural functions. This is what the young value the most.”
Source：Xinhua; trans-editing by Guo Yao