Cultivation
Most farmers in PNG grow coffee on small plots of land intercropped with other cash and subsistence crops. Most land where coffee is grown can more aptly be described as “coffee gardens” than as farms or plantations.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Many smallholders in PNG process their cherry at home. Farmers pulp their cherry—usually with small drum pulpers or other hand-powered methods—and then ferment them for approximately 36 hours. After washing the parchment to remove any remaining mucilage, producers will dry parchment to 10.5% moisture content. The predominant drying methods are sun drying on raised beds or tarps or mechanical dryers, of which the Asaro dryer is most popular.
Grading Changes in PNG
PNG recently released new naming protocols and grading standards. The changes create a more streamlined grading scale for PNG coffees. A is the highest grade, following by B and then Y, Y2 and finally, Y3.
Screen size naming has also been changed to reflect global standard by replacing letters with screen sizes.
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.