Farmers busy drying coffee beans in SW Yunnan

Xinhua pictures show villagers are busy with coffee-drying in Lisuo Village of Wa Autonomous County of Ximeng, southwest Yunnan's Pu’er, on Dec. 21.

Over 120 years ago in 1892, Alfred Liétard, a humble missionary from France travelled to the Binchuan county of Dali in today’s northwest Yunnan province. He carried some coffee seeds himself and planted them near a small mountainous village he passed by. 

Now, after several generations, Yunnan has grown to be the largest coffee producer across China, with totally 1.8 million mu (equal to 120,000 hectares) of coffee gardens and 400,000 tons of annual output. Major producing areas include Pu’er, Baoshan, Dehong, Lincang and Xishuangbanna.

In 2019, Yunnan exported 56,100 tonnages of coffee beans to 55 countries and regions, including the EU, the US, Japan and South Korea.

Source: Xinhua and others; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue