Origin: Papua New Guinea

Region: Kabiufa

Altitude: 1750masl

Varietal: Mixed

Process: Washed

Tasting Notes: Blackcurrant, cherry, orange, chocolate

This coffee reflects the initiative of one individual, Moses Venapo, an entrepreneurial producer in Kabiufa, who wants to offer local smallholders a better access to higher market price as well as higher traceability option. 

In November 2019, Moses set up a buying station for his community in Kabiufa. He implemented the best post-harvesting and processing practices. Unlike most coffee buyers in the area who trade parchment, Moses set up a cherry buying operation and built a small wet mill in his own back yard to ensure full control of the wet milling, fermentation, and drying process.

First cherries at the wet mill were purchased late November 2019 under the trade name ‘Riverside Coffee’. With high-quality in mind, Moses organised the buying process in a (for PNG) unique way: significant premiums of 30% above market price are paid immediately to the supplier for a “red cherry only” delivery. This means cherry is hand-sorted at the wet mill, prior to weighing it and buying it. The carefully selected ripe cherry gets processed while the unripe cherry is discarded. This serves both as a deterrent to the delivery of unripe cherries and to encourage better harvesting at the farm. 

Behind the wet mill area, Riverside Coffee has set up raised drying beds on which the parchment is carefully sun-dried over a period of 7 to 9 days. Any obvious remaining impurities are removed from the drying beds by hand. This results in immaculate looking parchment that is brought to New Guinea Highlands Coffee Exports Ltd. (NGHCE) ’s dry mill for processing.

Although Moses has only been operating on a small scale (50 smallholder cherry suppliers) and is only new to the world of coffee, his ability to effectively implement best practices are remarkable. NGHCE would proudly support the premium price levels of this unique coffee for its excellent quality and the direct impact on the community.