CHONGQING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has become the largest coffee trade hub in China, as its volume of coffee trade by the end of 2017 exceeded the amount in Shanghai and Yunnan.

Chongqing Coffee Exchange said Tuesday that the volume of trade from June 2016, when the trade center was established, to the end of 2017 in Chongqing hit 13 billion yuan (two billion U.S. dollars). The trade volume of coffee in Chongqing last year reached 9.7 billion yuan, making the inland municipality the largest coffee trade hub in China.

"London and New York are the largest coffee trading centers in the world, while Chongqing aims to become the third largest coffee trading center, so as to gain pricing power on the international market and change the existing industrial pattern," said Peng De, general manager of Chongqing Coffee Exchange. "The advantages of advanced logistics and service, and the good quality and output of coffee produced in neighboring Yunnan Province will help the municipality realize its goal."

Coffee consumption in China has increased year on year, at an average growth rate of 20 percent per year. It is expected that the value of domestic coffee consumption will reach more than 600 billion yuan in 2020.