The 2023 Xiamen International Coffee Fair was held on Nov 24-26 in Xiamen – a coastal city in East China's Fujian province – in an event that was fully open to the public at no charge.

Its exhibitions, forums, events and support activities covered the upstream and downstream coffee industry supply chain – presenting the coffee ecological supply chain and cross scenario new trends and consumption platforms.

Lin Zhenya, deputy director of the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Commerce, and Shafi Oumer Aga, deputy director of the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, delivered speeches to the opening ceremony on Nov 24.

Among those attending were representatives of the Indonesian Coffee Exporters and Industry Association, the Consulate General of Uganda in Guangzhou, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation and the China Coffee League.

Covering about 20,000 square meters, the exhibition gathered over 300 coffee brands, with the goal of building an international soybean supermarket trading platform. Big international soybean merchants from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Uganda and other countries signed cooperation agreements on-site.

The fair also witnessed the presentation of top international consumer brands such as K Coffee, Starbucks and McCafe in one hall for the first time.

The event was market-oriented and showcased the entire upstream and downstream supply chain of the industry.

Moreover, it gathered professional buyers, including agents and distributors – as well as the hotel catering, supermarket retail, leisure catering, cultural tourism and creative industries. It invited industry associations related to coffee, food and beverages, retail and commerce to do more to extend the coffee craze.

A forum on the growth and innovation of China's coffee industry also took place to promote dialogue between upstream and downstream players.

Topics like the integration of coffee categories and cross scenario new consumption, bottlenecks and opportunities at various levels in the segmented coffee sector – as well as the brand-building logic of the supply chain – were also discussed.

As a node city for a new pattern of development, Xiamen's open and inclusive urban character was said to promote the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, empowering the coffee fair to become a global coffee resource platform.