News Release

September 22, 2015

Satake's Optical Sorter Demonstrates Great Success Amid the Coffee Boom in Taiwan

Contributing to Quality Improvement, and installations inside Cafes

Taiwan is in the midst of a coffee boom! In order to meet the desire for high quality coffee, the number of coffee companies wanting to install optical sorters has been increasing. Here is the story of how Satake is contributing to the coffee industry in Taiwan.

Satake's "In Cafe" Optical Sorter

The coffee consumption (annual consumption of coffee beans per head) in Taiwan has increased by 1.73 times from 0.55 kg in 2004 to 0.95 kg in 2013 (statistics database of FAO). Cafes continue to open one after the other in the capital Taipei in response to this coffee explosion.

Coffee traders who own coffeehouses import premium coffee beans in order to serve such specialty coffees to their customers. Interestingly, as a means of securing product quality, they have turned to using optical sorters.

There are two applications in coffee bean sorting - for Green coffee beans and roasted coffee beans.Green coffee beans are mainly sorted to remove insect damaged beans and foreign materials such as stones. Alternatively Roasted coffee beans are sorted to remove any non-uniformly roasted beans.By sorting coffee beans in such a manner using optical sorters, coffeehouses can serve coffee that is both safe and of high quality whilst customers can relax to enjoy coffee that is rich in aroma and taste.

The Satake Small-scale Optical Sorter called Pika-sen α(alpha) which has a rated capacity of 1 ton per hour is increasingly being employed by coffee traders and coffeehouses, because the volumes traded of specialty coffee beans is much smaller than that of middle-level coffee beans.

The Pika-sen α(alpha) is highly regarded by the industry for various reasons - confidence in its Japanese relibility, its usability (easy to operate) and also its affordability (reasonable pricing).

Increasingly coffeehouses are installing a Pika-sen α(alpha) inside their own cafes. Consumers in Taiwan are particularly aware of food safety. Sorting the coffee beans live, in front of the customers inside the cafe helps create a favorable impression that their coffee is certain to be both safe and high in quality.

Satake responds to customer's various sorting requirements including rice, wheat, beans and nuts both domestically and internationally.

Appendix

Exterior of the Cafe	Satake's "In Cafe" Optical Sorter

Sorted Coffee Beans (Accepts)	Sorted Coffee Beans (Rejects)

PIKA-SEN α(alpha)

* Please note descriptions in news releases are accurate as of the date of release and may differ from the most up-to-date information.