Hawaii's Kona coffee industry is looking to attract more Japanese consumers by offering special tours.
Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation is one of the farms taking the lead by launching a Japanese-language Web site, hiring a Japanese-speaking concierge and offering tours targeted at Japanese visitors, co-owner Trent Bateman said.
"They like to have expanded knowledge of how we get the quality and how we actually do the labor," he said.
"It just so happens that Japanese people pioneered this industry. Now they might have faded a little bit and the newcomers outnumber them, but the allure of Hawaii and of Kona coffee has not gone away," Bateman said.
The Hawaii County Research and Development Department helped produce a Japanese edition of the self-guided Kona Coffee Country Driving Tour brochure.
The map highlights nearly 60 farms that offer tours, tastings and retail. The brochure also provides background information on the 180-year Kona coffee heritage, the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival in November, coffee roasting and processing, and the list of Kona coffee farms that have won the festival's cupping competition over the last 20 years.
Shunta Baba, a master purchaser for Japan's UCC Ueshima Coffee Co Ltd, is a veteran of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival that is wrapping up this weekend, having served for several years as an expert judge at the cupping competition.
"The younger generation is drinking more coffee," he said. "Japan does think about Kona coffee as a premium coffee."
"Most people in Japan don't know about how to process coffee so visitors here are very interested to see that," Baba said. "For them, it is a first time to be able see this. When you are selling coffee in Japan, you are also selling how coffee is made."
UCC Ueshima also sponsors the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Pageant and organizes an extended promotional tour of Japan during the queen's reign.
The relationship works both ways, with UCC Ueshima hosting a group of Japanese contest winners at this year's 37th annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.
"We have always been very close with our ties to Japan and it appears it is growing every year," said Norman Sakata, longtime festival president and cochairman.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s drone exports surged past US$100 million in the first quarter, exceeding last year’s full-year total, with the Czech Republic emerging as the largest buyer, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Exports of complete drones reached US$115.85 million in the period, about 1.2 times the total recorded for all of last year, the ministry said in a report. Exports to the Czech Republic accounted for about US$100 million, far outpacing other markets. Poland, last year’s top destination, recorded about US$11.75 million in the first quarter. Taiwan’s drone exports have expanded rapidly in the past few years, with last year’s total
RSS