Dutch agricultural commodity merchant Louis Dreyfus Company and Chinese coffee firm Luckin Coffee have commenced construction of a joint venture coffee roasting plant in Xiamen, China.
The plant, which is situated on a 35,000 square metre plot of land, will have an annual production capacity of 30,000 tonnes and is expected to start production by mid-2021.
The annual production capacity of the plant is expected to increase to 40,000 tonnes in the second phase of construction. The plant will be equipped with the 'latest environmentally-friendly technology' for coffee cleaning and roasting, including the roaster’s exhaust air cleaning and smoke elimination.
This project forms part of a strategic co-operation between the two companies, which includes a joint venture to develop a juice business, which was signed in September 2019.
The partnership will continue to strengthen LDC’s business presence across China, and enable the company to develop further downstream.
Broad Customer Base
“We are pleased to be advancing in our alliance with Luckin, which has proved highly successful in developing a broad customer base in the Chinese coffee market, through the use of cutting edge technology and an innovative business model,” said Michael Gelchie, LDC’s chief operating officer.
Luckin intends to extend its upstream production closer to the raw materials and production, in order to give it greater control over its product quality. The plant expects to supply Luckin’s growing network of coffee shops across China.
“This joint venture will also enable a more robust, transparent and sustainable coffee supply chain, to provide great tasting, high quality and convenient coffee to Chinese consumers,” added Gelchie.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Elizabeth Schroeder. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
