Shanghai Coffee Culture Festival celebrates local coffee culture

Shanghai continues to lead the world in coffee culture, by having 9,553 coffee shops at the end of 2023, the most for any city globally. The information was revealed during the press conference of the Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival on Friday.

The number saw a 12 percent surge from the previous year, said Sun Yun, senior director of public affairs at online service platform Meituan.

According to the data released by food delivery platform Eleme, it showed that orders for take-out coffee in Shanghai have also increased by 40 percent from 2019 to 2023, with the major consumer group aged between 28 and 43.

Cheng Yuanyuan, director of public affairs at Eleme, further pointed out that consumers aged between 12 and 27 might become a potential consumption power in the future since their coffee orders have increased in recent years. In addition, nearly 70 percent of the coffee consumers on Eleme were women.

"The sales of take-out coffee in Shanghai alone accounted for 20 percent of all cities in the country in 2023," Cheng said.

To continue promoting coffee culture, Shanghai will kick off the international culture festival on May 1.

The largest coffee carnival in the city, which combines sports, culture, tourism and exhibitions, will be held on the West Bund from April 30 to May 4, gathering together coffee markets, time-honored brands, sports events and performances on the 1.5-kilometer waterfront.

This year's coffee culture festival will collaborate with 16 districts as well as Lin-gang New Area, to launch events such as the Bund Coffee Festival at the Bund Finance Center, a coffee drama festival in Changning district, a coffee camping culture festival in Putuo district and a global coffee industry development forum in Minhang district.

"A series of exciting and diverse coffee cultural and creative activities are being intensively carried out throughout the city, creating a strong festival atmosphere while sparking a new experience of coffee culture in Shanghai," said Jin Lei, deputy director of the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

Jin added that the festival will also cooperate with coffee brands from France, Austria, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Japan to open overseas pop-up stores, offering "Shanghai specialty coffee" and "gifts from China" to foreigners and conveying the city's coffee culture to the world.

Eleme, which has participated in Shanghai Coffee Culture Week since 2022, will cooperate with multiple coffee brands to give away 550,000 free cups of coffee to the public during the upcoming festival.

Meituan's coffee festival warm-up activity started on April 10, cooperating with more than 5,000 stores across the city to launch exclusive coffee coupons, while also releasing five coffee routes for citizens to explore.

"During the May Day holiday, we will hold coffee pop-up events on Yongkang Road, Wukang Road and Daxue Road. Meanwhile, a series of coffee lectures, classes and forums will be held to spread coffee culture," said Sun, who is also the editor-in-chief of review platform Dianping.