Coffee centre in the centre of coffee
The new coffee centre, the biggest of its kind in China, is planned in Pu’er
in the south-western province of Yunnan and will be used to train 5000 coffee
professionals each year. Yunnan is
the epicentre of coffee in China: the past two years Nestlé bought about 22.000
tons of coffee beans in the province.
The new building can also be used as a starting
point to increase coffee consumption in China, which currently stands at only four cups per person, while
this number is between 100 and 150 cups in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The country is currently the second most
important market for Nestlé with sales exceeding six billion Swiss
francs, about 4.9 billion euro. Since 2010 the Swiss company has created a joint venture for
bottled water and it bought controlling interests in candy producer Hsu Fu Chi
and drinks producer Yinlu. It also took over the child food division of Pfizer in
China.