(Yicai Global) Aug. 4 -- As the number of coffee drinkers grows in China each year, the country’s market for the beverage is expected to exceed CNY200 billion (USD29.6 billion) in 2024, nearly double that of last year, according to a new report.

China’s coffee market was worth CNY113 billion in 2021, a 31 percent jump from the year before, said the report released today by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and takeaway platform Ele.me to coincide with the start of Shanghai Coffee Culture Week. The number of people buying coffee online climbed 1.5 times from 2019, it added.

The Chinese market is still in its infancy, with much room for growth compared with mature markets in Europe and the United States. The report showed that the average Chinese drank 8.8 cups of coffee last year, an amount that is forecast to rise to 10.8 cups by next year, while Germans, the world’s leading coffee lovers per head, downed 901 cups and Americans 350 cups.

As coffee drinking has gained ground in China, coffee bean exports have fallen each year since 2019, while imports have surged. China shipped in 122,800 tons of coffee beans last year, a 74 percent gain on the year before, while their value jumped 68 percent to USD526 million, according to the report.

The growing taste for coffee has attracted investment. In the first 10 months of last year, total financing to the coffee industry was close to CNY6 billion (USD890 million), the report said.

Shanghai-based Manner Coffee banked hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from TikTok’s parent company Bytedance in June, and another Shanghai coffee brand M Stand raised CNY500 million (USD74 million) in a Series B fundraiser last month, per the report.

At the end of last year, both US coffee chain giant Starbucks and its Chinese rival Luckin Coffee had more than 5,500 stores in China, while among emerging brands Manner Coffee had over 500 and M Stand more than 100, the report said.

Manner Coffee is among a number of Shanghai roasting chains that are offering free drinks during Shanghai Coffee Culture Week, a two-week event to showcase the city's coffee-drinking lifestyle.

Editor: Peter Thomas