UCC Hawaii Kona Coffee Estate:
A Favorite with Japanese Consumers and Vacationers

By Patricia D. Sherman

“UCC Hawaii Kona Coffee Estate was founded in Kona in 1989 as the showcase farm for the Japanese market,” says Tsukasa Tom. Sato, Director and General Manager, Ueshima Coffee (UCC Hawaii) Corp. “This provided a physical presence in one of the premiere coffee growing areas in the world” for the company that had been founded by Tadao Ueshima in 1933.

When Ueshima started the company, he was bringing coffee to a nation of tea drinkers. Now, Japan is the third larges coffee-consuming nation in the world and Ueshima Coffee Company (UCC) is the largest provider of coffee products to the Japanese market.

“In Japan, coffee products are changed often,” says Sato. Japanese consumers are interested in coffee backgrounds and are highly responsive to new techniques, blending and packaging. “A big trend now is novelty coffee, something different, such as certified coffee—Rainforest, Organic, Fair Trade, and so on.”

This avid interest in backgrounds and processes is one of the reasons Kona is such a good location for the company’s showcase farm. Besides being an ideal growing environment, says Sato, Hawaii is a popular destination for Japanese vacationers.

“Our trees per acre ratio is a little lower than other commercial Kona coffee farms. Seventeen of the farm’s 35 acres are planted with 15,000 trees. This lower ratio facilitates easier access into the field for visitors,” he explains. The farm offers tours and hands-on experiences, such as “roast your own” private reserve. And there’s a bonus: “The view from the farm to Kailua-Kona offers a magnificent panorama of the Kona coast with its stunning sunsets.”

Sato joined the company as an agronomist in 1997 after graduating from Tokyo University of Agriculture and spending a year in Jamaica learning firsthand about coffee farming. He worked in the import department and managed farms in Jamaica and Sumatra before taking over the management of the farm in Kona in 2003.

Coffee growing is always interesting and always challenging, he says. “We never have the same things happening year in, year out. We have a standard farming schedule but the most important thing is how we devise good farm maintenance for each year. We should have apply a variety of techniques, ideas and skills with proper knowledge to produce high a high yield of high quality of coffee.

Still, Sato says, if he  weren’t a coffee grower he would be a science and agriculture teacher. “Even now, I sometimes have that dream.”

Visit http://www.ucc-hawaii.com/.

Patricia D. Sherman is Editor of CoffeeAtlas.com

©CoffeeAtlas.com

Contact Us: Editor Webmaster