The increasing demand for African coffee in China presents a huge market potential for coffee producing countries in Africa, Chairman of African Fine Coffees Association Ishak Lukenge said Friday.

Chinese interest in Africa's coffee is a great opportunity for African countries to increase coffee exports to China, Lukenge told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of the 17th African Fine Coffees Conference and Exhibition in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

China's large "coffee-consuming market" will help African countries diversify their coffee sales and spur production and generate more revenues, he said.

China, with its big population, offers a base for product demand and business opportunity for Africa exports, said the chairman.

China is not just offering investment, infrastructure and financial support to African countries, but now also offering its market, said Lukenge.

He encouraged Africa's coffee-producing countries to enter into joint ventures with partners in China to penetrate the market, thus expanding coffee exports to China.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame said in Davos last month that farmers in the country are selling coffee directly through the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), which facilitates tariff-free trade for transactions of less than 1 million U.S. dollars. Coffee is already being sold through this platform to new markets, such as China, where farmers get 12 U.S. dollars per kilogram, 4 U.S. dollars more than they used to get.

The conference, which ran from February 13 to 15, brought together more than 600 delegates, including 65 exhibitors from across Africa and beyond to discuss ways to raise the quality and competitiveness of the coffee produced in Africa.

Its members include Cameroon, Burundi, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.