The life of a great coffee starts long before it reaches your cup. In a forest, on a hillside, in a farm, in a small rural community. Behind every captivating aroma and flavor are the lives of people who grow it, many facing challenges related to climate change, economic instability, urbanization, malnutrition, and more. At Uminomukou Coffee—which translates to coffee from beyond the sea—not only do we import coffee from more than 30 countries around the globe and sell them to Japanese roasteries, we also work towards bettering the lives of the communities that supply us.
Future Design Lab
This is the job of Future Design Lab, our dedicated team within Uminomukou Coffee that focuses on international collaboration that goes beyond fair-trade coffee production. Through partnerships with international organizations such as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), we drive community development, aiming to support coffee-producing communities in building a more secure and sustainable future. We are not merely buyers and importers of their coffee, we are co-producers with a common goal of elevating the quality of the coffee, protecting the natural environment of their beautiful homelands, and improving the livelihoods of the people who work there. Our strengths lies in our involvement across the entire coffee supply chain: from cultivation and processing, to distribution and sales. We strongly value relationship cultivation, and all our projects are built upon a strong foundation of trust.
COFFEE-JAPAN PROJECT
A defining project of ours is the COFFEE-JAPAN PROJECT in Laos. In collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and a local business partner, Saffron Coffee, we aimed to support coffee production in vulnerable households such as those with young children, pregnant, and breastfeeding women, in order to increase their household income, thus strengthening food security. At Future Design Lab, we acknowledge that understanding a community cannot happen behind a desk. Throughout the project, our staff visited 8 villages and conducted in-person interviews and discussions to accurately understand the realities behind the challenges. In addition to fair-trade coffee production, the project held a series of training on sustainable coffee production, nutrition training, and also ensured market access for the farmers through connecting them with the Japanese coffee market, providing secure and sustainable income for the farmers. Even after the project comes to an end, we maintain our connection with the local suppliers, carrying forward the trust that we have built.
Our Three Pillars
So, what exactly does the Future Design Lab actually set out to achieve? Our work centers around three core ideas.
Origin Incubation. Many coffee-growing regions especially in Southeast Asia remain undiscovered, lacking access to supply chains that turn their coffee into viable businesses. Through working closely with these communities to build the foundation for new origins, we unlock their potential, driving them toward future opportunities.
Collaboration with Partners. Hand in hand with our partners, we tackle issues that go beyond coffee production, really tapping into community life, and providing what they need, not what we think they need. Country by country, village by village, we personally visit the communities that we work with, hearing the voices of individual farmers, listening to their struggles, getting insight that often goes unacknowledged in global audience.
Value Creation through Coffee. At Uminomukou Coffee, we believe that the value of coffee isn’t limited to its quality and price. It can be a key player in driving biodiversity, protecting nature and preserving the local ways of life. It can be a story, that carries the voices of those beyond the sea. By emphasizing the multidimensional value of coffee, we aim to create a thriving system that benefits everyone— people and planet alike.
Collaborate with us!
Every community we visit has opened our eyes to new problems that simply buying coffee cannot solve. The coffee that we source is not just coffee. It is a story. It is the life of the people from that community. As our vision— “Creating coffee’s next chapter, together”—reflects, the coffee that we source is just the beginning. What we are really building, together with these communities, is something lasting.
However, there is a limit to what one company can do by themselves. Therefore, we are constantly looking for meaningful partnerships to bring together our collective resources and expertise to create lasting impact and be part of the long-term solution. You don’t need to have a perfect outline from the start. A vague idea. A genuine interest. That is all we need. From there, we can work together to create something of substance. As we have learned through the traditional meals with local communities across the globe, connection comes first and concrete plans will follow. Reach out if you want to work with us.
