Methodology

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l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y 2. Research model

2.1. Research framework

Given that the current literature available on Yunnan coffee is scarce and superficial, the main question that this research attempts to address is the individual and collective role and motivations of all actors involved in the coffee business in Pu’er, and how their interactions have led to the current fast development. Moreover, this study will explore the impact that government, farmers and investors have on other actors, and the division of power. Based on previous literature, the present study will focus on issues of poverty alleviation, quality control, foreign investment and, most importantly, the role of the government in the development and promotion of this industry.

The variables involved in the fast development of coffee in Pu’er are summarized in three:

actors, strategies and motivations. The qualitative analysis of each variable, explained from the different perspectives of each of the actors involved, provides an understanding of the functioning of the coffee production system in Pu’er. First, this research will examine the role of each party involved in the coffee industry, including their individual contributions and motivations. Next, the focus will move on to the global strategies developed by the government and implemented in cooperation with companies and farmers. These are the main strategies known to have generated the fast development of the last years and expected to produce further growth in the future. Finally, the study will analyze what factors serve as motivation for officials, entrepreneurs and farmers to combine efforts for the development of coffee industry. Based on existing literature and the interviews conducted during the field research, those driving forces will be further categorized as “official” and real motivations.

2.2. Methodology

This study is based upon four main methods of research: literature review, quantitative data, interviews, and participatory observation, the last three obtained during the fieldwork in Yunnan. Since the production of coffee in Yunnan is a rather unknown and fairly recent phenomenon, hardly any literature has been written on the issue, especially in the social sciences. In the past five years there has been a gradual increase in the information available

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on Yunnan coffee, mostly in newspapers, coffee blogs, and short journal articles written by local scholars. This study will use some of these formal and informal sources as general reference. Considering the absence of quality information, the aim of this research was to gather all the knowledge necessary for a first in-depth analysis of the current situation and future development of coffee industry in Pu’er. Quantitative data is scarce and cannot alone reflect the current reality. While some numerical data will be analyzed, the bulk of this study is based on qualitative data gathered on site. In order to answer the research question, this study opted for a very comprehensive, in-depth, participatory involvement in the data collection, and aimed at understanding the issue from all angles. Consequently, the types and sources of the data, as well as the actors involved, were selected to be as heterogeneous as possible, within the target established in the research question.

2.2.1. Fieldwork

Field research in Yunnan, including interviews, data collection and participatory observation, was conducted from March 11 to 31 in Kunming and Pu’er.

The research began in the province capital, Kunming, where the main offices for coffee companies and government branches are. The first destination was the office of the Coffee Association of Yunnan (CAYN), located in the heart of the city: the Green Lake. The formal semi-structured interview with members of the CAYN proved very helpful to envision a general picture of this industry for the first time, as well as to obtain references and contacts to expand the research. In the following days, formal semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of Aini Garden and Manlao River Coffee in Kunming. In addition to the interviews, more information about coffee culture and knowledge of local coffee was obtained through several informal conversations in coffee shops near Wenhua Alley, Kunming “foreigners’ street”.

Following the first incursion in Yunnan coffee through the capital city, the next and main destination was Pu’er. The region is home to a wide variety of coffee farms and factories, companies and procurement centers, universities with coffee studies and, most importantly, the main government office for coffee development in the area. Government officials in the Pu’er Coffee Industry Development Office not only agreed to an extensive interview and tour around the premises, but also provided a wide range of official data that illustrates the growth

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of coffee and tea industry, the measures and policies implemented by government agencies, and the prospect figures for the following years. This quantitative data is necessary to establish a reliable numerical reference to support the more subjective, observational data.

The formal interviews were then followed by an informal lunch meeting in which topics like tea and coffee culture, ethnic minorities, and tourism were discussed with veteran government officials and younger office workers representing Yunnan and other regions in China. The intimate connection of the Pu’er Coffee Office and the rest of parties involved in this industry in Pu’er proved to be extremely helpful to obtain information and references of relevant contacts in the prefecture.

In the following days, several coffee companies were interviewed and factories were visited.

This research includes semi-structured interviews with local companies like Beigui, Arabicasm and Aini; foreign purchasers like the giants Starbucks and Nestlé; and individuals like the owners of Yicun Coffee who, pushed by his passion for coffee, opened a small processing store where you can sit and taste coffees from all over Yunnan. The hours of interviews, coffees drank and factories visited are the main source of information for this research. Although in less number due to language barriers —many farmers only speak local dialect—, this study also includes impressions from conversations with some farmers met in procurement stations and private farms.

Since the growth of the industry is followed by an increasing demand of trained professionals, this research also conducted in-depth interviews with professors of the coffee major in the Yunnan Vocational College of Tropical Crops, and informal interviews with some of the students in this new specialty. Luckily, it was also possible to assist to actual classes in two of their newest and original classrooms: the coffee shop and the processing-cupping classrooms.

To summarize, the research in Pu’er delivered great amounts of information from very different sources and diverse methods, ranging from formal interviews to informal conversations over a cup of coffee. While many interviewees were recommended by government officials, the majority of the people that contributed to this research were met through their connection to Kworlds Communication, an advertisement company that works in close collaboration with the government. Finally, taxi drivers and restaurant owners, hotel managers and KTV employees, they all seemed to have something to say about Pu’er coffee industry.

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Back in Kunming, two more interviews were conducted to contrast and delve into questions that arose during the fieldwork in Pu’er. In order to further understand the potential environmental threats of intensive coffee production in the region, an interview was conducted with environmentalists of the non-profit organization Green Watershed. Then, a professor of the Tourism Management department in Yunnan University was contacted to provide some insight about the future of Pu’er as a destination for coffee tourism.

All formal interviews were duly taped in Chinese language and transcribed into English.

Informal conversations, impressions, and other fieldnotes were recorded in writing in a field research diary.

Limitations of the study

The following research encountered several limitations that need to be addressed. First, this study was primarily limited by time and resource constrains. The span of time available for the field study and the lack of resources, especially economic, restricted the time of this research to eighteen days. Moreover, some interviews could not be conducted due to incompatibilities in schedule and location. Language barriers also limited the scope of the research, particularly when conducting interviews with farmers. Yunnan is a region with a great variety of ethnic minority groups that speak different dialects and languages;

additionally, the local dialect of Pu’er can be difficult to understand for non-native Mandarin Chinese speakers. The majority of farmers lack basic levels of formal education and thus their knowledge of the standard Mandarin is scarce or nonexistent. As a consequence, some interviews with farmers could not be carried out or had to be conducted with the help of non-professional translators.

Nonetheless, the main limitation of this research originated from the interviews conducted with government officials and entrepreneurs. A general tendency observed in many interviews was that the responses of different interviewees to same questions were surprisingly similar, both in tone and choice of words. Other times, speakers used similar drawings and diagrams to illustrate what they expressed. In other words, frequently throughout the research, standard answers were provided for certain delicate topics. While there is no real evidence to confirm this affirmation, the overall impression is that these responses may have been extracted from pamphlets, books, speeches or general propaganda.

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Since many sets of interviews shared numerous similarities, the reliability of the information provided by the interviewees for those questions was questioned and closely examined.

These phenomena have been taken into account for the analysis of the information. Due to the lack of literature on Yunnan coffee, this research relies on other sources to contrast the veracity of the information gathered during interviews. The data has been analyzed taking into account general literature on the development of coffee industries around the globe, the researcher’s knowledge of the people and the culture and, most importantly, the observations made during the field research. In many cases, observation of the interaction between farmers and businessmen, government officials and companies was key to determine the degree of trustworthiness of the affirmations made by those same actors during the interviews.