BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) — The Reference News published an article on August 8 titled “Coffee and Tea: New Ties in Trade Between China and South Asia.” The full text is as follows:
The South Asia Expo serves as a window conveying China's strong commitment to opening up. Beyond just coffee and tea, from salt, flowers, and wild mushrooms to aluminum steel membranes and biomedicines, more and more exhibits are turning into commodities. China is actively forging new ties in trade with South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
In the newly established coffee industry pavilion, the expanded South Asia pavilion, and at the bustling South Asia Tea Festival, one cooperation agreement after another and trade orders are being signed… At the recently concluded eighth China-South Asia Expo (South Asia Expo), not just coffee and tea, but also items ranging from salt, flowers, and wild mushrooms to aluminum steel membranes and biomedicines, more and more exhibits are turning into commodities. China is actively forging new trade ties with South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
Yunnan is the birthplace of tea and is also renowned for its coffee. From goods trade and investment promotion to tourism cooperation and cultural exchange, the South Asia Expo acts as a window showcasing China's firm determination to deepen and expand trade cooperation with South Asian countries, conveying China's strong commitment to opening up. Through this platform, parties deepen cultural exchanges, turning more “good neighbors” into “good friends,” and bringing “bright prospects” with “beautiful landscapes.”
Bonded by Tea
On July 23, the eighth South Asia Expo opened in Kunming. Chamara Udugama, the 54-year-old chairman of Sri Lanka Tea Talk Company, once again brought Ceylon black tea from Sri Lanka to Yunnan, Kunming. During the six-day exhibition, Udugama brewed cup after cup of bright red Ceylon black tea for Chinese guests, the rich floral aroma attracting many tourists to stop and taste it.
Tea Talk Company is one of over 2,000 participating Chinese and foreign companies at this South Asia Expo. Yang Mu, director of the Commerce Department of Yunnan Province and deputy director of the organizing committee of the eighth South Asia Expo, said that this expo has deepened pragmatic cooperation with South Asian countries. The number of booths in the South Asia pavilion increased from 480 to 776, and over 400 enterprises were organized by official institutions of various South Asian countries to participate in the exhibition. Handmade carpets, cashmere scarves, black tea, and other specialty products from Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and other countries have been widely popular, achieving “buying all over South Asia at one exhibition.”
In the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, thousands of kilometers away from Kunming, almost everyone is familiar with the story of “the first Ceylon tea plant coming from China”: In the mid-19th century, British colonists brought Chinese black tea plants to Sri Lanka, and since then, black tea has been deeply loved by the locals, deeply integrating into their culture and life, becoming a bright business card of this country.
Udugama's tea factory is located in Galle, a southern city in Sri Lanka. After the leaves on the tea trees are picked by workers from nearby plantations, they are transported to the factory, where they undergo dehydration by machines and hand rolling. The natural enzymes in the tea leaves undergo varying degrees of fermentation, forming unique color, aroma, and flavor, and then are graded according to quality and category before being packaged.
July 19, workers pick tea at the Tea Talk Company plantation in Galle, a southern city in Sri Lanka. (Photo by Wu Yue)
Udugama introduced that 2,500 kilograms of black tea go through such processes every day at the Tea Talk Company factory and are then transported to the packaging factory in Colombo, the capital, waiting to be “exported,” including the batch of tea that came to the eighth South Asia Expo.
Chinese black tea varieties, rooted in Sri Lanka for nearly 200 years, have now returned to Kunming in a fragrant form, becoming a bridge linking trade and culture between the two countries.
“We have brought premium tea produced from our own plantation to our Chinese friends, with information about the production area, rainy season, and dry season on each package,” said Udugama. He prepared ten types of black tea from six major tea-producing areas in Sri Lanka, including Kandy, Dimbula, and Uva, for Chinese customers at the South Asia Expo, hoping to satisfy more customers' tastes and needs.
After tasting mint, white peach, passion fruit, and other flavors at Udugama's booth, Liu Bohong, a resident of Kunming, said, “It's very fragrant and sweet, different from the taste of Chinese tea, but all very delicious.” Liu Bohong bought three boxes of different flavors of Ceylon black tea after tasting.
“In my heart, Chinese friends love tea and understand tea, straightforward and willing to cooperate,” said Udugama. He became bonded by tea with China 12 years ago. Twelve years ago, he brought Ceylon black tea to China and participated in his first overseas exhibition. Since then, he has traveled back and forth between Sri Lanka and China dozens of times, opening up the market for his company's Ceylon black tea in China.
In recent years, Udugama has seen more and more Chinese friends become interested in Ceylon black tea. He looks forward to establishing connections with excellent Chinese partners through participation in exhibitions across China and providing high-quality Ceylon black tea to Chinese customers throughout the year.
After tea from China spread to the world, various countries combined their regional and ethnic cultural genes to cultivate prosperous tea cultures and tea industries. In 2025, the first South Asia Tea Festival was inaugurated at the seventh South Asia Expo. Tea merchants from South Asian countries used tea as a medium to promote tea products and Tea drinking cultures of various countries to professional buyers and consumers, working together for development.
This year, not only Sri Lankan black tea, but also fine teas from other countries were showcased at the South Asia Commodity (Tea) Festival, with a fragrant atmosphere on site. Through joint planning for tea industry development and promoting multilateral interconnection and cooperation has become a consensus among participating parties from Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, and other countries.
Originating in Southwest China, tea reached the world along the ancient Tea Horse Road, and the magical “Eastern leaves” have become a bridge for transmitting culture and connecting emotions among people in different regions.
“For the people of our two countries, Drinking Tea is an important part of life,” said Sri Lankan tea merchant Charije, who has made China the primary development market for his company's black tea. For Charije, tea is not only a witness to trade between the two countries but also carries the friendship between the two countries as fragrant and long-lasting as black tea.
It is the same for Southeast Asian countries. Pham Thi Thanh Xuan, a tea merchant from Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, which borders China, said, “China and Vietnam are connected by mountains and rivers, and both grow and drink tea. China's tea industry develops faster, and there is much we can learn from them. I hope to have more opportunities to exchange and learn from Chinese tea merchants.”
Pham Thi Thanh Xuan named the tea sold by her company “Viet Xiu Tea,” meaning “excellent Vietnamese tea.” To make the tea in her hometown grow better and produce better tea, she has come to Pu'er and Baoshan in Yunnan multiple times to learn from Chinese experiences in tea planting, processing, and sales. Every time she participates in exhibitions in China, she carefully asks for opinions from peers and customers, hoping to improve the quality of “Viet Xiu Tea.” At the same time, she also orders Pu'er tea and Longjing tea from China to bring back to Vietnam for sale.
“The Rise of Chinese Coffee”
A master-level latte art coffee made by a robot can be tasted within 60 seconds. This is not uncommon at this South Asia Expo.
This robot, developed by Yiding Coffee, can make ten types of coffee, including classic Americanos and espresso, and supports customization of seven types of latte art patterns, such as swans.
This South Asia Expo established a single-category professional pavilion for the first time – the coffee industry pavilion, with a total of 11 exhibition zones, displaying the entire industrial chain ecosystem of coffee from raw beans to roasted beans, from roasting to processing, from packaging to auxiliary materials. It also held special activities