On the morning of February 24, 2025, Dehong Teachers' College held the opening ceremony for the first International Training Program on Coffee Technology Transfer of the Yunnan Provincial International Joint Laboratory for Coffee Research in the Boya Hall of Cuiyu Building. The training program features specialized sessions on topics such as the global and Chinese coffee industry development, breeding of new coffee varieties in Indonesia, Indonesian coffee market trends, prospects for specialty coffee, coffee breeding in China, research on functional compounds in coffee, coffee roasting techniques, and coffee cupping scoring systems. Over 100 participants, including project leaders from participating units of the Yunnan Provincial International Joint Laboratory for Coffee Research and trainees, gathered to attend the ceremony and subsequent training.
The ceremony was addressed by Yang Minghong, President of Dehong Teachers' College; Dinni Astika Sari, Director of the Indonesia Coffee and Coco Research Institute; and Yang Chao’en, Director of the Dehong Prefecture Science and Technology Bureau.
Yang Minghong, on behalf of the college, extended a warm welcome to the experts and trainees who had traveled from afar. He introduced the college’s fundamental profile, emphasizing its active efforts to enhance support for regional economic and social development. Notably, the key discipline cluster—"Tropical Regional Characteristic Agriculture Discipline Cluster"—has achieved remarkable results in academic research and talent cultivation. In recent years, the college has actively responded to the national "Belt and Road Initiative," fully leveraging its strengths in agricultural science and technology. It has vigorously pursued research in coffee variety innovation, cultivation techniques, and deep processing, yielding a series of significant outcomes. He expressed confidence that through this training program, participants will gain valuable knowledge and apply it to contribute to the high-quality development of China’s coffee industry.
Yang Chao’en stated that Dehong Prefecture, located in the southwestern frontier of China, boasts unique natural resources and climatic conditions, making it one of China’s key coffee-producing regions. It is also Asia’s largest base for instant coffee powder production and processing, as well as a vital supplier of high-quality Arabica coffee beans. In recent years, Dehong People’s Government and some other prefectural departments have prioritized the development of the coffee industry, implementing specialized policies such as the Three-Year Action Plan for Coffee. These efforts have significantly increased support, accelerated the transformation and upgrading of the coffee sector, and yielded remarkable achievements.
Yang Chao’en put forward three expectations: First, he hoped that experts would generously share their expertise to advance the growth of Dehong’s coffee industry. Second, he called for strengthened collaboration among all stakeholders to safeguard the high-quality development of the region’s coffee sector. Third, he emphasized the need to refine the division of responsibilities to ensure the successful fulfillment of all evaluation targets for the laboratory platform’s construction.
Dehong Teachers' College signed project contracts with research collaborators of the Yunnan Provincial International Joint Laboratory for Coffee Research.
The Yunnan Provincial International Joint Laboratory for Coffee Research was established in 2023 and initiated by Dehong Teachers' College, in collaboration with research institutions from Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with over ten Yunnan provincial research entities. Officially launched in June 2023, the laboratory was approved for construction by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Science and Technology and passed its evaluation in July 2024, receiving special funding from the department. The laboratory is dedicated to supporting Yunnan’s Three-Year Action Plan for Coffee, aiming to cultivate high-quality specialty coffee varieties, enhance processing capabilities, and elevate coffee flavor profiles.
