Severe drought could affect China's coffee industry

The once-in-a-century drought that has parched southwest China would affect the output of 60 percent of the coffee farms in Yunnan Province, says a report by the Coffee Association of Yunnan (CAYN).

And industry analysts say the persistent drought would also threaten coffee bean output in the next three years as well.

Yunnan, with 32,000 hectares of coffee plantations, accounts for 98 percent of China's total 490,000 mu, or 32,700 hectares, of coffee plantations, according to the CAYN.

The report was compiled after a CAYN special team investigated the effect of the sever drought in the province in April.

"Coffee seedlings planted in the past three years were affected the most," said CAYN vice president Liu Biao. "According to our conservative estimate, two fifths of the newly planted coffee seedlings in Yunnan last year have withered during the persistent drought."

In Pu'er City, where more than 100,000 farmers produce coffee, the drought affected almost all its 14,533 hectares of plantations, he said.

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