Kenyan coffee shop chain Java House Africa has announced an agreement with Chinese retail company Green Chain to export tea and coffee to China.

Java House will export ten to fifteen tonnes of Kenya AA Arabic coffee and Gold Label Tea within a month under the new deal. Java House Chief Executive said “Some of our biggest sales of bagged coffee at our restaurants in Kenya are actually to Chinese customers, so why not take it directly to them?”. While China is traditionally a tea-drinking country, coffee has gained in popularity in recent years and Starbucks has opened more than 2,800 outlets since entering the market in 1999. Java House already exports macadamia nuts to China and plans to expand its export business beyond China into other parts of Asia.

Green Chain is a subsidiary of CJ Smart Cargo, a logistics solution provider with 12 overseas branches and more than 200 partners worldwide, including six across Africa. It was established in 2002 as Qingdao CJ Smart Cargo Co.

The Java House chain began as a single coffee shop in Nairobi in 1999. It now has nearly sixty outlets in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. In the summer of 2017 it was bought by Dubai-based investment firm Abraaj Group, who have also partnered with East African Brookside Dairy and Ethiopian Dashen Breweries.

Java House announced plans in May to double the number of Kenyan outlets over the next two years as well as expanding operations in East Africa and overseas. This deal with Green Chain is the first step in the expansion process.