Coffee in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea grows its coffee in some of the world’s most rugged mountains. In the central highlands, around Goroka, Mount Hagen and the Wahgi Valley, hundreds of thousands of households grow washed arabica in small coffee gardens beside their food crops, descended from trees planted in the 1930s. Getting it out is hard: roads are poor, and quality and output have fallen since the 1990s. But the best, Coffee Review says, is “splendid”. Here’s how much, where, when and where it goes.

The short version

• About 800,000–1 million bags a year; about 95% arabica.
• The highlands: Western and Eastern Highlands, Jiwaka, Simbu.
• Smallholders grow more than 85%, in coffee gardens.
• Washed, with a bright, fruity, sweet cup at its best.
• Harvest from about March; exports peak later in the year.
• Coffee berry borer has hit hard since 2017.

How much coffee does Papua New Guinea grow?

About 800,000 bags, USDA estimates, but its exports swing widely between big and small crops:

Measure	Figure	Source
Production, 2025/26	800,000 bags	USDA
Production, 2023/24	980,000 bags	USDA
Exports, May 2023–April 2024	1,031,211 bags	The Fiji Times
Exports, 2024	827,100 bags (−14.1%)	The Fiji Times
Production, 2016	750,854 bags (45,069 t)	Coffee Industry Corporation, via Oxford Business Group
Production, 1975	650,000 bags	Coffee Industry Corporation
Production, 2015	733,831 bags (44,030 t), a record low	Coffee Industry Corporation
Production, 2016	1.13 million bags	Coffee Industry Corporation
Exports, typical year	About 1 million bags	Coffee Industry Corporation

The Coffee Industry Corporation’s own figures for 2016, 1.13 million bags, differ from the 750,854 bags it gave Oxford Business Group. Coffee earned PGK989 million in exports in 2024, when cocoa overtook it for the first time, but higher prices and a bigger crop were expected to put coffee back on top in 2025. Papua New Guinea counts its coffee year from May to April, and a big crop is usually followed by a small one.

Where is coffee grown in Papua New Guinea?

In 18 of 22 provinces, World Coffee Research says, or 16, according to the Coffee Industry Corporation, but mostly in the central highlands: Western Highlands, with Mount Hagen and the Wahgi Valley; Eastern Highlands, around Goroka and Kainantu; and Jiwaka and Simbu between them, Coffee Review notes. CIC says Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Morobe and Simbu grow over 90% of the crop, and East Sepik most of the robusta. Shares by province:

Province	Share	Source
Western Highlands	45%	Wikipedia
Eastern Highlands	37%	Wikipedia
Simbu	6%	Wikipedia
Morobe	5%	Wikipedia
East Sepik	5%	Wikipedia
Western and Eastern Highlands together	More than 80%	Business Advantage PNG
Western Highlands (before Jiwaka was split off)	About 42–46%	Coffee Industry Corporation
Eastern Highlands	58%	CIC data, via ACIAR (2024)

CIC’s province profiles give each area’s altitude and typical cup:

Province	Altitude	Typical cup (CIC)
Eastern Highlands	1,548–1,898 m (Goroka to Kainantu)	Sweet, cocoa and spice; tea-like body; lemon; delicate fruity finish
Western Highlands and Jiwaka	Most people live at 1,400–2,200 m	Sweet, nutty, toffee, caramel; citrus, juicy, tropical fruit; soft and balanced
Simbu	1,599–1,920 m	Fruity, floral; tropical fruit, melon, honey, pineapple, black currant; juicy

Wikipedia’s shares don’t list Jiwaka, which Coffee Review names among the main provinces; no newer breakdown is published online. Goroka is the commercial centre of the trade and home of the Coffee Industry Corporation. Most smallholders grow arabica above 1,500 metres, Sucafina says, and a little robusta grows in the lowlands.

The coffee

Almost all washed arabica, much of it from trees descended from the Blue Mountain plantation of the 1930s. Coffee Review describes the best as “bright but balanced, gently fruit- and floral-toned, sweet”, with fruit from stone fruit and citrus to black currant, usually chocolate, and often a sweetly pungent note it likens to pink grapefruit. Estate coffees, such as Sigri of Carpenter Estates, were traditionally graded A and AA; village coffees, bulked together, were graded Y. Top grades have fallen from about 15% of output in the mid-1970s to about 5%, Curtin University researchers found.

When is coffee harvested in Papua New Guinea?

From about March. Growers in Simbu and Eastern Highlands described the 2023 season as running from March to June, when prices were highest at the start and end, IFPRI and the University of Goroka report, and trees give three pickings a season. Exports usually exceed 100,000 bags a month from August.

Who grows Papua New Guinean coffee?

Smallholders grow more than 85%, in coffee gardens of up to two hectares, Curtin University says; some have as few as 20 trees. About 397,000 households grow coffee, the Rural Industries Council estimates. Most process at home: they pulp the cherries in small hand-powered pulpers, ferment them for about 36 hours, wash them and dry the parchment on raised beds or tarps, Sucafina says. Yields are low, about 417–560 kg of parchment a hectare in one study, and in 2024 more than three-quarters of the communities surveyed said they had lost over half their last harvest to coffee berry borer, which was first found at Banz, in Jiwaka, in 2017.

Where does Papua New Guinean coffee go?

Almost all of it, 99.9%, leaves as green coffee, mostly through Lae. Germany usually buys over 36%, followed by the United States (25%), Australia (16%), Japan and Belgium (5% each), the Coffee Industry Corporation says. By grade, Y1 smallholder coffee makes up 58% of exports, Premium Smallholder Coffee 12%, X 9% and A 6%; the United States takes most of the A and X grades and Germany most of the Y1. Certified coffees, from Fairtrade and organic to 4C and Rainforest Alliance, are about 5% of exports.

A short history

• 1890: the first official record of coffee, in a colonial report; by 1897 a plantation near Port Moresby has 20,000 arabica trees, Sucafina says.
• 1926–1928: commercial planting begins, with Jamaican Blue Mountain seed, Wikipedia says; in 1928 the government plants arabica at Wau, later renamed the Blue Mountain Coffee plantation.
• 1950s–1970s: coffee spreads through the highlands from the Aiyura research station, and European and Australian planters set up mills and buyer networks for smallholders.
• 1963: the Coffee Marketing Board, forerunner of the Coffee Industry Corporation, is set up.
• 1975: independence; as plantations decline, smallholders take over most production.
• 2017: coffee berry borer is found in Jiwaka.
• 2024: exports fall to 827,100 bags; cocoa earns more than coffee for the first time.

Papua New Guinea coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Indonesia: whose wet-hulled coffees contrast with Papua New Guinea’s washed ones.
• Coffee in Ethiopia: where arabica began.
• The atlas: Papua New Guinea’s growing areas on the map.