Papua New Guinea Coffee

Explore by region

• Eastern Highlands

  In the rugged Eastern Highlands, morning fog fills valleys and slopes while mountaintops bask in sunshine. As the day warms, the fog moves up the mountain, snagging on the summits until the clouds brood up their daily rainstorm. Spent, the clouds roll meekly back down into the valley with the cool night temperatures. Lovely climate for coffee.

  But thousands of years before coffee came to the Eastern Highlands, people lived there. In fact, it was not until 1927 that the first European settlers arrived. Traditional dress is not often seen these days except perhaps during celebrations. However, one can still see the famous Asaro Mudmen masks, traditional round huts on the rolling grassy hills, or the annual independence day gathering in which thousands of islanders converge to sing, dance, and drum.

  Eastern Highlands

• Obura Wanonara District

  Obura Wanonara is a subregion in the Eastern Highlands coffee region of Papua, New Guinea. In the rugged Eastern Highlands, morning fog fills valleys and slopes while mountaintops bask in sunshine. As the day warms, the fog moves up the mountain, snagging on the summits until the clouds brood up their daily rainstorm. Spent, the clouds roll meekly back down into the valley with the cool night temperatures. Lovely climate for coffee.

  But thousands of years before coffee came to the Eastern Highlands, people lived there. In fact, it was not until 1927 that the first settlers from the western world arrived. Traditional dress is not often seen these days except perhaps during celebrations. However, one can still see the famous Asaro Mudmen masks, traditional round huts on the rolling grassy hills, or the annual independence day gathering in which thousands of islanders converge to sing, dance, and drum.

  Obura Wanonara District

• Wahgi Valley

  Coffee is a mainstay of the economy in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It is grown both on larger plantations and by smallholder farmers as well, and the Wahgi Valley is one of the most heavily cultivated and settled areas in the region. Agriculture is not new to this valley: 30,000 years ago, it was home to people who were among the most advanced socio-political and farming communities on the earth at the time. Those farming methods were passed down the generations, and today descendants still employ them to grow coffee and other crops.

  Ca. 1930, Mick Leahy, an Australian, was the first explorer to open the Wahgi Valley, finding that the interior of Papua New Guinea was inhabited, a fact that had long been debated. These days, neat villages, well-tended gardens and coffee plantations fill the valley, and the capital city of Mount Hagen is the third largest city in PNG, a busy “wild-west” town bustling with technology and tradition.

  Wahgi Valley