Harvest & Post-Harvest
With its lofty altitude, harvest in the East typically starts around May and ends around winds down around August/September. Production and processing here are rustic, though, with recent improvements in pulping and drying equipment in growing communities and better processing practices, many smallholder growing groups are producing incredible coffees and the potential to improve further is immense.
About the Highlands
The highlands form the backbone of PNG. With its high altitude and cooler climate, the highlands are perfect for the cultivation of high-quality Arabica Coffee. 70% of the population is still dependent on subsistence agriculture and small plots of coffee trees.
Farming procedures are organic by default/ Chemicals, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are both unknown and unobtainable because of cost and logistics. As a result, coffee from the highlands has naturally low levels of caffeine and acidity, with absolutely no trace elements of chemicals and pollutants. This fact has been independently verified laboratories in Australia and Europe.
AX Grade
PNG’s unique grading system includes X and AX bean sizes. AX indicates that the lot has beans that are screen sizes 14 to 17. This means that are beans in an AX lot are between 5.5 and 6.75 millimeters in size.
Coffee in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a relative newcomer to the specialty coffee scene. The remote locations of the nation’s smallholders—who produce 85% of total coffee in the country—combined with historically-poor infrastructure has made the transition to specialty difficult. Nonetheless, the country is working towards innovative solutions that will hopefully lead to better quality coffee and improved livelihoods for the nation’s smallholder coffee producers.