China News Service, Kunshan, September 25 (Reporter Zhong Sheng) More than 230 high-quality brands in coffee-related industries from 21 countries gathered at the 2026 International (Kunshan) Specialty Coffee Exhibition in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province on the 24th. Professional coffee supporting competitions, industry exchanges, supply and demand docking, trendy lifestyles and interesting experiences are presented together, bringing a lively and fragrant coffee carnival.
This exhibition is divided into a professional display of the industrial chain and a two-hall linkage layout for mass consumption, covering all links from "beans to cups", aiming to open up the industrial end and the consumer end, and achieve an organic integration of professional business functions and popular science experience.
The "2026 China Urban Coffee Development Report" shows that the scale of China's coffee industry has reached 354.9 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%. Judging from per capita consumption data, the average annual coffee consumption of Chinese people will increase from 16.74 cups in 2023 to 28.57 cups in 2025. In the coffee exhibition area, pavilions from major coffee-producing countries such as Colombia and Ethiopia have settled in, targeting China's incremental market; local production areas such as Yunnan and Hainan have teamed up to promote "domestic fine beans" to go global.
"In recent years, thanks to China's zero-tariff policy and the 'green channel' for exporting agricultural products to China, Uganda's coffee bean exports to China have grown rapidly." said Su Lang, Agricultural Trade Commissioner of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Uganda in China. "Nowadays, Chinese consumers pay more and more attention to the quality and flavor of coffee. From freshly ground coffee to original coffee solution, from fruit coffee to tea coffee, creative coffees are emerging in an endless stream. Uganda's specialty coffee beans are rich in varieties, diverse processing methods, and rich in taste. They can satisfy China's new coffee consumption ideas, and the cooperation market is huge."
Wu Mikang, a Colombian coffee bean export agent, participated in the exhibition and mainly promoted local limited-edition specialty coffee beans such as Geisha and Bourbon Hija. He is optimistic about the young group in China's coffee market, so he actively studies new media platform promotion, attracts customers and enhances interaction with Chinese consumers by telling stories about the origin of coffee and showing beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers.
Although Kunshan is not a coffee-producing area, for every three cups of coffee in the country, 2 cups of coffee beans are roasted in Kunshan. More than 40 leading international coffee companies, including Starbucks, Luckin, and Japan's Mitsui & Co., have successively settled in Kunshan, establishing stable trade channels with 33 major coffee-producing countries and regions around the world. This year, Kunshan’s coffee roasting production capacity will be increased to 200,000 tons, and 150,000 tons of warehousing capacity will be deployed simultaneously. Here, the entire process of green bean trade, platform trading, R&D and roasting, and brand sales are connected, and the entire process from green beans to finished coffee can be completed within half an hour's drive.
As the leading area of Kunshan's coffee industry, in recent years, Kunshan Development Zone has based on its industrial advantages and relied on the country's first Asia-Pacific green coffee bean distribution center to control about 60% of the country's green bean imports and roasting capacity. The development zone has also joined hands with universities to build the Kunshan Coffee Industry College to cultivate professional talents in a targeted manner and inject a steady stream of talent momentum and innovative vitality into the high-quality and sustainable development of the Kunshan coffee industry.
