A researcher picks ripe coffee cherries in a greenhouse in Lhasa, Xizang autonomous region. [Photo/WeChat account: xizangfabu]

Coffee trees are bearing fruit in a solar greenhouse in Lhasa after eight years of research and trial planting in Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region.

Researchers at the Institute of Vegetables of the Xizang Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences introduced 10 coffee varieties from Yunnan province and selected four highly adaptable and resistant varieties with stable yields. The selected varieties can survive winter outdoors in Medog county and flower and bear fruit in greenhouses in Lhasa.

The research team raises plants from seed rather than introducing seedlings from other regions, a measure intended to reduce the risk of bringing in the coffee berry borer, a major coffee pest. Researchers said the pest has not been found in the coffee plantations in Xizang. Tests also showed sucrose levels of up to 10.6 percent in coffee beans grown in a Lhasa greenhouse.

The team has expanded trial planting to other parts of Xizang. In 2026, researchers established new trial sites in Panam county, Shigatse, and Chonggyai county, Lhokha.

Researchers are also studying Nostolachma jenkinsii, an endangered wild plant whose only known habitat in China is Medog county, for possible use as a specialty crop, a source for functional products, and rootstock in future coffee breeding and cultivation.