Simbu

Simbu, officially spelled Chimbu, is one of Papua New Guinea’s main highland coffee provinces, and one of the most rugged. Below Mount Wilhelm, the country’s highest peak, almost every family farms its own small block of coffee. The province is a significant source of organic coffee, and the Coffee Industry Corporation describes some of the fruitiest cup profiles in the country.

The short version

• Arabica at about 1,600–1,900 metres, in very steep terrain.
• Fruity, floral and juicy, with tropical fruit, honey and black currant.
• About 6% of national output.
• A significant source of organic coffee.
• Harvest about March to June.

What does Simbu coffee taste like?

Fruity and juicy. The Coffee Industry Corporation’s profile lists sweet, fruity, floral, cocoa and caramel aromas, and a cup with tropical fruit, melon, honey, sweet citrus, pineapple and black currant: smooth, juicy, complex and clean, with good body. That makes it the most fruit-forward of CIC’s highland profiles, against the chocolate and spice of Eastern Highlands and the nuts and toffee of Western Highlands.

Recent lots have scored highly. Coffee Review’s blind assessments:

Year	Coffee	Score	Notes
2025	Siane Chimbu	93	Baker’s chocolate, molasses, ripe peach, nutmeg, sandalwood
2026	Chimbu, Chuave	95	Blackberry, pineapple, cocoa nib, orange blossom, sugarcane; juicy, sparkling acidity; syrupy

Source: Coffee Review. The 2025 review lists the origin only as Papua New Guinea; the coffee is sold under the Siane Chimbu name.

Where and how it grows

Simbu lies in the central highlands cordillera, bordered by five provinces, with Mount Wilhelm on its edge. Its five main districts, Chuave, Gumine, Kerowagi, Kundiawa-Gembogl and Sina Sina-Yongomugl, lie from 1,599 metres at Kerowagi to 1,920 metres around Kundiawa, the capital, CIC says; the sixth, Karamui-Nomane, is reached only by small plane. Rainfall is heavy: about 2,224 mm a year on the flatter land and up to 4,855 mm on the Bomai plateau. Most local people grow coffee on their own smallholder blocks, alongside spices and food for local markets. All the districts except Karamui-Nomane took part in CIC’s coffee flavour profiling project.

Harvest and pests

The 2023 harvest in Simbu and Eastern Highlands ran from about March to June, IFPRI and the University of Goroka found; dry parchment sold for 3.5 to 7.0 kina a kilo, most at a standard price regardless of quality. Yields in their study area were about 417 to 560 kg of parchment a hectare, and over three-quarters of communities reported losing more than half the previous harvest to the coffee berry borer.

How much coffee does it grow?

Measure	Figure	Source
Share of national output	About 6%	UNCTAD, via Wikipedia
Rank	One of five provinces growing over 90% of PNG’s coffee	Coffee Industry Corporation

Oxford Business Group names Simbu with Eastern and Western Highlands as the provinces where most of PNG’s coffee is concentrated. In 2018 a Simbu farmer group from Gumine, working with CIC’s partnership project, was among those that reached the national cupping round, The National reported.

Simbu and other PNG origins

• Coffee in Papua New Guinea: the whole country, its exports and its history.
• Eastern Highlands: the neighbouring province to the east.
• Western Highlands and Jiwaka: the Wahgi Valley to the west.