May 1-4, 2024, 2024 World Barista Championship (WBC) was held in Busan, Korea, and Mr. XQ Zhang, General Manager of Shanghai Sinoexpo Informa Markets International Exhibition Co., Ltd.(IM Sinoexpo), as the sole licensed Competition Body from China by World Coffee Events, met with Mr. Yannis Apostolopoulos, CEO of SCA (Specialty Coffee Association), an authoritative organization in the global coffee industry. Both parties conducted in-depth discussions on the organization of coffee competitions, the selection and training of talents, and the development of China’s specialty coffee industry.
In 2003, IM Sinoexpo was authorized by World Coffee Events (WCE) to successfully introduce the WBC into China, in which the competition body champions were qualified to participate on the World Barista Championships and compete with the world’s top baristas on the international stage. Since then, IM Sinoexpo has introduced other international coffee competitions, including the World Late Art Championship (WLAC), the World Cup Tasters Championship (WCTC), World Brewers Cup (WBrC), World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship (WCIGS) and World Coffee Roasting Championship (WCRC).
For more than 20 years, IM Sinoexpo has continued and inherited the high standards and high standards of international coffee championships, combined with the trend of coffee market traffic, and held nearly 30 regional competitions in more than 20 cities and regions across the country every year, which not only provides a stage for baristas to show their exquisite skills, but also boosts the spread of domestic specialty coffee culture. Up to now, more than 40 National Champions of China and 2 World Champions have exceled from the World Coffee Series China Championships hosted by IM Sinoexpo, promoting the professionalization and internationalization of China’s coffee industry.
Nowadays, China’s coffee industry has become a new consumption growth point, and the scale is expanding, with the market size of China’s coffee industry reaching 617.8 billion yuan in 2023, especially in Shanghai, which leads the world with more than 8,500 café shops, not mentioning the number of cafe shops in 3rd and 4th tier cities is also growing rapidly, demonstrating the huge potential of the Chinese coffee market. In the future, IM Sinoexpo will continue to maintain closer cooperation with SCA, continuously improve the quality and influence of coffee competitions, provide a broader competition stage for Chinese baristas, better promote specialty coffee culture, and spread the unique charm of Chinese coffee.
