In the eastern part of the Yangtze River Delta, Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, where 60% of the country's green coffee beans are gathered, new products are baked every ten minutes in the roasting factory, waiting to be sold all over the country and neighboring countries - with coffee and other industrial chains as the medium, domestic and international dual circulation converges in the Yangtze River Delta.
At the beginning of the Spring Festival in 2024, the reporter took the G7578 high-speed rail train from Lu'an, Anhui Province, through Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai to Wenzhou, Zhejiang, to circumnavigate the Yangtze River Delta for more than 1,000 kilometers, from Dabie Mountain to Zhejiang-Fujian hills, from the bank of the Yangtze River to the coast of the East China Sea, to explore the latest achievements of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.
In Suzhou, the reporter found a new thing in the Yangtze River Delta - you can also drink coffee and "talk about business" on the high-speed rail train.
The coffee element in the high-speed rail car. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yuxuan.
On the afternoon of January 30, when the car arrived in Suzhou, Kunshan entrepreneurs and local cadres walked into the train, and the aroma of coffee in their hands quickly filled the small dining car.
As a foreign product, coffee originally only appeared in cities with a high degree of openness in the Yangtze River Delta. Tang Xukai, a native of Ningbo who often travels between Kunshan and Shanghai by high-speed rail, said that now you can also drink coffee on the high-speed rail in the Yangtze River Delta, which is take-out, freshly ground and instant, with many choices and convenience.
In a few years, Tang Xukai's transformation seemed to be caught off guard: he gave up the financial industry to enter the food industry, and started a coffee business with his partner who had previously opened a bubble tea shop. His understanding is that in a region with a high degree of openness and international integration such as the Yangtze River Delta, the demand prospect for coffee may be even greater. However, in the early days of his business, his Shanghai and Nanjing stores, which were renovated according to Starbucks' first-class standards, were quickly closed.
The competition is too fierce, the industry is too optimistic, and the high investment cannot pay off. Tang Xukai said that after being poured cold water on the first-tier cities, he opened all the stores in the second- and third-tier cities. In the past two years, his Nordington Coffee has opened more than a dozen stores in Kunshan, and there are nearly 200 stores nationwide.
Between the ups and downs of entrepreneurs, Kunshan has gradually risen a 100-billion-level coffee industry chain, supporting the rapid replication of Tang Xukai's business model of "three lines surrounding one line".
Wu Tao, director of the Kunshan Comprehensive Bonded Zone Administration, took out a brochure and said that the Asia-Pacific Green Coffee Distribution Center is the first professional and standardized green bean distribution center in China, attracting many well-known enterprises engaged in green coffee beans such as Louis Dreyfus Company of France, Mitsui & Co. of Japan, and Socco Fina of Switzerland. In 2023, the Kunshan Comprehensive Bonded Zone will import 6 green coffee beans throughout the year690,000 tons, with a value of 212.5 billion yuan.
Wu Tao said that back then, Kunshan people disassembled a laptop computer and attracted manufacturing companies to the parts one by one, and finally formed a complete notebook industry chain. Now, the people of Kunshan have built a coffee industry chain with the same spirit and perseverance.
Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ji Chunpeng.
The Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park will be put into operation in Kunshan in 2023. At present, Starbucks has achieved large-scale integration of the vertical industry chain "from green beans to coffee" in China, which means that it can basically achieve the entire industrial chain from planting to sales in China.
This is due to the in-depth development of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the construction of a unified national market. Wu Tao said that Yunnan is the country's largest green coffee bean field, Shanghai is the country's largest coffee consumption field, and Kunshan has gathered sixty percent of the country's imported green coffee beans and sixty percent of green beans roasted. Wu Tao is full of confidence: "The integration degree of foreign-funded enterprises is so high, and the integration degree of our domestic enterprises should be improved faster." ”
Kunshan Yiguo International***'s green coffee center stores 150,000 tons of green coffee beans. Huang Zhenghao, the person in charge of the company, held a bag of coffee beans in one hand and introduced: this one is a commercial blend bean, and the taste is relatively stable; This one is a single bean with a specific origin flavor. The quality of single product beans is higher, and it also brings better profit returns for enterprises.
Based in Kunshan, we will not only introduce global coffee beans into China, but also distribute domestic coffee beans abroad. Huang Zhenghao's talk about the future prospects sparked brainstorming in the dining car
It is said that sugar cane is not as sweet as both ends, but coffee can be fragrant inside and out. ”
Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Japan and South Korea and other neighboring countries have large markets. ”
A coffee bean reflects the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. The Yangtze River Delta has become a hub of domestic and foreign dual circulation, and China's large domestic market and the new export chain set up by domestic enterprises are attracting foreign resources and enterprises to pour into this hub.
A green roasting plant in the Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shaogong.
Shi Ying, deputy director of the Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, said that coffee is just a representative and a way to open up Kunshan's high-end food industry. At present, in addition to the growing coffee industry chain, the high-end food industry in Kunshan Development Zone has made efforts in multiple categories such as high-end snack food, organic health food, and food equipment.
1. Starbucks, Swire Coca-Cola, Luckin, Danisco, Tetra Pak and other well-known brands and core enterprises of the first chain.
Welcome to our intelligent production, where coffee roasting is now almost unmanned. When getting off the high-speed train, Shi Ying sent an invitation to the people in the dining car. He proudly said that intelligent production is gradually becoming a typical scene of Kunshan food manufacturing. The Yangtze River Delta is emerging as a world-class industrial cluster, and the large-scale intensive and intelligent food industry is an indispensable support. (Reporter Liu Zhaoquan, Yang Shaogong, Liu Yuxuan).