About This Coffee
In contrast to the better-known hills of the Western Highlands, the East offers high altitude coffees where many smallholder groups produce unique coffees. The rugged and wild terrain make it an inhospitable environment for farmers and coffee explorers. Many producers try to tackle this issue by accessing markets as cooperatives and by supporting each other with co-management of farms, sharing pulping facilities, drying spaces, and storage. Often, these type of cooperations are informal and are formed around tribal or village groups. Harvest in the East typically starts around May and stretches out through to October.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
The Ainora comes from a network of smallscale producers based in Kianantu, Obura-Wonenara, in the Okapa district. The parchment is brought to a centralized warehouse and mill in Goroka. Here, meticulous quality protocols are followed to ensure the coffee is processed in the right conditions. After milling, the coffee gets prepared for export.
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.