Gordon Dumoulin
- Jul 30, 2022
- 2 min read

Is Coffee The New Tea ?

High tech fun ! The good old rubber saving stamp for collecting a free cappuccino or latte in your favorite coffee shop 😊

In 2020, China's coffee market was valued a little over USD 12 billion, nearly doubling the value in 2015 with an expected annual growth of 10-15% in coming years. Since October 2021, China is with 5,400 stores Starbuck's second largest market after the United States and many foreign coffee chains are knocking doors in the market. But Starbucks is not even the largest chain in number of stores, Luckin Coffee from Beijing surpassed 6,000 stores earlier this year, only established in 2018.

Nevertheless the average consumption per capita is 9 cups of coffee per year in China is neglible compared to world's number one Finland with a per capita average of 1400 cups per year or for example the United States with about 400-450 cups.

The overall per capita comparison does not reflect a realistic picture as there are huge demographic differences in China with respect to coffee consumption. While drinking coffee is practically non-existent in many rural areas across China, habitual coffee drinkers in 1st- and 2nd-tier cities in China consume an average of about 300 cups a year, near the level of mature markets. Of these habitual coffee drinkers, more than 50% are constantly increasing their coffee consumption, thereby developing a coffee drinking habit.

China has also their own coffee cultivation and drinking culture in Yunan province.

𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗲𝗮 ? Probably not, but China today is certainly a very attractive and huge market for coffee business with on the other hand also the most competitive and difficult market at the same time. Innovation, experience, lifestyle, quality and services are constantly evolving factors in this market.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳... It can be expected that a trendy development and modernization of the tea market (apart from bubble teas), adapting product and market developments to Generation Y and Z consumers, will pop up sooner or later. The question is not if but when... Maybe a better business opportunity than the harshly competitive coffee market ?