Narrator: Li Jia, Deputy President, Menglian Dai, Lahu and Wa Autonomous County Sub-Branch, Agricultural Bank of China

My hometown is located in Menglian Dai, Lahu and Wa Autonomous County in Pu'er city, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Twenty years ago, the villagers of Xingang village relied on sugarcane farming for their livelihoods, with an annual per capita income of less than 1,000 yuan ($140).

In 2007, Xingang village established the Jinshan Coffee Cooperative. Under the leadership of Party Branch Secretary Ai Gu, villagers developed a 1,700-mu (113 hectares) coffee plantation. The cooperative provided technical services to coffee farmers, purchased and processed coffee beans, and sought out sales channels.

Thanks to the high altitude and significant temperature variations between day and night, the coffee initially grew well, orders were plentiful, and the villagers' lives gradually improved. However, in the winter of 2018, a severe frost damaged over 400 mu of coffee trees in their peak fruiting period. Coupled with a decline in international coffee bean prices, the affected farmers lacked the funds to recover. They could not pay for fertilizer to save the trees.

Inclusive finance should provide timely assistance and serve people's livelihoods. Upon learning of this situation, despite the lack of collateral, we provided credit loans ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan per household to the 58 most severely affected coffee farming households. This support helped preserve the coffee industry and warmed their hearts.

By 2022, international coffee bean prices had rebounded, and Menglian county began focusing on specialty coffee. To address the funding needs at various stages of the industrial chain, the Agricultural Bank of China optimized its agricultural financial products and services, introducing offerings such as the "rural revitalization coffee loan" to support local industry development. As of the end of September 2025, the Agricultural Bank of China's Menglian county sub-branch had disbursed a cumulative credit of 31.21 million yuan, supporting 12 coffee enterprises and cooperatives and benefiting over 5,000 farming households.

Zhao Mei, a young Wa woman, was one of the beneficiaries. Her Yanei Coffee Estate planned to build a coffee processing plant but lacked the funds and collateral. Based on the estate's revenue and order situation, we provided a credit loan of 1 million yuan. With this funding, Zhao introduced advanced processing techniques, launched the Xingang Premium Selection line of coffee beans, and established a cultural tourism coffee complex that attracted a large number of visitors.

After years of development, coffee beans in Menglian county have become "gold beans" that bring prosperity, "brewing" a sweeter life and spreading the aroma of Yunnan coffee to the world. Local enterprises have also integrated coffee with the traditional Wa brocade weaving technique, innovatively launching souvenirs with local features to boost villagers' incomes.

Inclusive finance benefits the daily lives of countless farming households while contributing to broader economic development. Currently, the focus of inclusive finance is shifting from accessibility to performance quality. We must strive to improve quality, introduce new and practical measures tailored to local conditions, and continuously enhance the depth, breadth and intensity of inclusive finance to better meet the people's needs for a better life.