Ground for coffee culture

According to this year's white paper on China's coffee industry, which was released by food delivery platform Eleme on Aug 4, China's coffee industry was valued at 381.7 billion yuan ($56.3 billion) last year, up 27.2 percent year-on-year. The report also estimated that the market value will exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2025. This rapid development of China's coffee industry led to the setting up of 25,900 new coffee-related enterprises in the country last year, a year-on-year increase of 12.5 percent.

With so many local brands emerging and expanding across China, there is now an urgent need to address the shortage of talent in this field, says Xia Yuan, deputy director of the coffee department at the Shanghai Technician Association.

Apart from Hinichijou coffee chain, other companies have entered the fray to address the personnel issue. Among them is Lili Time cafe, the only authorized social enterprise of its kind in Shanghai. More than half of its staff members are hearing-impaired.