Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha is home to one of Japan's premier tea plantations, measuring around 667 acres.Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha, one of Japan’s largest tea factories, is using new technology to grow high-quality crops without pesticides and other chemicals.
Most farmers would be concerned to see tiny gray spots on their crops. But that's not the case at Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha in Kagoshima at the southern tip of Kyushu, home to one of Japan's largest tea factories and green tea manufacturers. The dusting of harmless ash is an occasional gift from neighboring Sakurajima, an active volcano and the symbol of Kagoshima prefecture.
Horiguchi Daisuke, vice president and representative director of Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha, comes from a long line of tea farmers; his grandfather first began cultivating tea plants shortly after WWII. Today the farm produces a wide range of teas — from oolong to black and green varieties, including matcha, and its award-winning sencha."Each export market has different regulations for the types of pesticides and fertilizers that can be used in agricultural production," Horiguchi says.
In Japan,"smart agriculture" is now being promoted to realize labor-saving, precision and high-quality production, and Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha is one of the first farmers to adopt it. This is not all. The spirit of challenge of the previous generation did not stop there. Day after day, he pursued the improvement of work efficiency and the production of safe and secure tea, and also came up with new ideas."Recently, we've been trialing a prototype unmanned 'robot' plucking machine.
"Domestic demand for tea has declined over the last decade," Horiguchi says."On the plus side, however, overseas consumers hold our tea in high regard as a symbol of Japanese culture and we are seeing a steady increase in international sales – especially for matcha, which is seen as delicious. We mainly export matcha directly to the United States, France and Germany."
Cool
Why was Trump banned?
Too beautiful.