Papua New Guinea A/X Organic

Papua New Guinea was first colonized by the Germans and British in 1885 and the mountainous, rugged interior was left un-mapped thinking it was too inhospitable to be populated. In 1930, an Australian prospector traveled into the Eastern Highlands searching for gold and found the region contained fertile valleys and over 1 million people consisting of over 400 tribes. Missionaries then swarmed the region and coffee was brought with them. During 1950s an active policy of encouraging the establishment of village coffee gardens was initiated and by the 1970’s over 25,000 hectares of Arabica had been planted throughout the highlands.

Coffee has become the backbone of the rural economy and is the major source of income for more than 40% of the population. Notable for the mountainous topography of the island and the incredible cultural diversity of thousands of indigenous groups, historical changes in infrastructure have reduced the number of centralized coffee plantations typical of most coffee regions. Roughly 95% of producers are small holders where many plantations are actually collections of traditional “coffee gardens,” small plots of as few as 20 plants grown alongside subsistence crops.


Papua New Guinea coffees are well known for their interesting acidity and variety. With new processing methods being introduced, these already incredible coffees continue to grow in quality and consistency.