From Japan to coffee farms in Huila
- As every year, Japanese experts attended in Colombia the International Training Course for Mild Coffee Quality Control Specialists, hosted by the FNC and Almacafé. Visiting three coffee farms in Gigante, Timaná and Acevedo, in the Huila department, enabled them to learn about the Colombian origin from seed to cup.
Asuki Saito, from Ishimitsu & Co., is one of the seven Japanese experts from different companies who recently visited Colombia to attend, during two weeks, the 12th International Training Course for Mild Coffee Quality Control Specialists, organized every year by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and Almacafé’s quality office.
Although he confesses that personally he wasn’t really a coffee lover, he ended the course not only knowing what is behind Colombian coffee, but recognizing that he will have better selling arguments, “words that convince,” to offer Colombian coffee to customers.
“It’s an opportunity to learn more about coffee from different points of view,” he says. “There are many different flavors. And by understanding coffee attributes, I can explain to Japanese consumers that coffee is not a single one, but many, of which any will please them.”
After receiving theoretical training in Bogotá and cupping coffee, the group was able to visit three farms in the municipalities of Gigante, Timaná and Acevedo, in the Huila department, to learn about the production process.
“They looked at the importance of coffee, of the institutional continued support,” tells Iván Álvarez, a quality coordinator who accompanied them on the tour in Huila.
Getting to know other branches of the FNC, such as Cenicafé (the FNC’s R&D arm), the freeze-dried coffee factory Buencafé, and Almacafé’s warehouses also gave them a more comprehensive understanding of Colombian origin.
“I had always seen coffee from the consumers’ point of view, but by getting to know which process is behind the coffee we consume daily, the sensation of knowing that world is different,” he adds.
Ishimitsu & Co. imports green and soluble coffee from different countries to sell it in Japan, and has a roasting plant for selling roasted coffee (ground or in beans) to different Japanese brands.
Asuki controls quality at the roasting plant and inventory of soluble coffee imported by his company. “In thinking about how to better sell coffee to customers, it’s very important to know how the producer country is, and the passion and care with which people are devoted to coffee farming,” he says.
Japan is not only one of the main coffee importers in the world, but the second destination of Colombian coffee exports after the USA and the main destination of the FNC coffee exports.
It is a market of high added value, innovative, and very dynamic, a strategic partner of Café de Colombia. And increasingly more Japanese experts, like Asuki, get interested in the great diversity of Colombian coffee origins to offer them to their own customers. “That’s why I’m here, I want to learn to differentiate a number of Colombian coffee origins to develop that business opportunity,” he says.
In order to consolidate and strengthen the relationship with Japan’s coffee industry, the FNC has organized over the last 12 years this important course, which has enabled to train nearly 160 Japanese experts, who visit the country to discover and learn first-hand what’s behind Café de Colombia.
The coffee production process; international standards for assessment and classification of Colombian mild coffee; and methodologies, procedures, techniques and technologies used by the FNC in the coffee export process are among the subjects taught in the course.