Shanghai to brew training standards for baristas

Shanghai, a leading city in China in terms of coffee consumption, aims to brew the country's coffee success by setting up more national standards for the sector.

The compilation of a barista textbook was launched during the fifth Shanghai Coffee Master Cup, which took place at Shanghai Hongqiao International Coffee Harbor on Nov 26.

Eight experts were appointed by the Shanghai Technician Association to formulate a tutorial for professional training of domestic baristas based on the latest national vocational technical standards for baristas published in June.

"Considering the large number of cafes in Shanghai, there will be a need for more than 23,000 baristas in the city. If we can judge a barista's skills using unified standards, we can help enterprises quickly distinguish talent and further promote the quality enhancement of the overall coffee industry," said Xia Yuan, general manager of the innovation business division of Tim Hortons China, who is also head of the expert team for the latest vocational standards.

During the barista qualifying contest, 23 competitors from coffee chains including Luckin Coffee, Tim Hortons, Seesaw Coffee and M Stand entered the final, and Lu Daoqiang, a 30-year-old barista who has been in the industry for six years and a half, won the championship.

The result will bring Lu an upgrading of his national vocational skill ranking and a priority in competing for Shanghai's May 1 Labor Medal, according to Zhou Fang, secretary general of the coffee professional committee of the Shanghai Technician Association.

The number of coffee shops in Shanghai had grown to 8,000 as of June 30 despite the bitter effects of the outbreak.

Coffee is the first and one of 10 sectors expected to reach a business scale of 10 billion yuan by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, a year-round trading platform in Shanghai affiliated with the China International Import Expo.

The Shanghai Hongqiao International Coffee Harbor, which was certified in the center on Aug 4, is designed as a coffee trading and exhibition platform, with more than 30 renowned coffee businesses having set up operations here.

"The harbor is expected to serve as a center for imports and exports of coffee-related products that can generate a combined trade value of about 10 billion yuan annually, starting from 2025. And we can get there via seizing opportunities driven by three key elements talent, trade and brand," said Zhu Jing, deputy general manager of the Shanghai Hongqiao International Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Co.