Kokoda Coffee

You may not know that coffee is actually a fruit, picked from the coffee tree. Coffee trees are grown from seedlings that take an average of 4 years to reach maturity. As with other fruit trees, coffee blossoms rely on insects for pollination. A mature coffee tree takes approximately 9 months from pollination to harvest to produce fruit.

When firmly rooted, young coffee saplings are transplanted from the nursery to the plantation. In the coffee industry the ripe fruit of the coffee tree is referred to as ‘cherry’ for their bright red colour.

Coffee saplings waiting for transplantation to the field

Fruit and vegetable crops worldwide flower once and then produce a crop once per year. Papua New Guinean coffee flowers 9 times a year! The main harvest or coffee season in Papua New Guinea lasts from May to October! Some fruit is produced before and after the season, but May through October is when 70% of the annual yield is produced.

As explained in our section on Papua New Guinean Arabica, growing conditions for Arabica coffee in Papua New Guinea are as perfect as you can get. Young nutrient filled volcanic soil, tropical sun and plentiful rain all combine to make Papua New Guinean coffee so unique.

A plantation road in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinean coffee growers use another method called "multi-stemming", to maximise their harvests during the coffee season. After the main harvest is over, the fruit bearing stem is pruned. During the next growing cycle, the new stem will grow from this prune faster, which produces more fruit.

Coffee must also be grown using proper plant husbandry techniques to ensure each bean reaches its full potential.. The simplest way of explaining husbandry is to compare it with a mother nurturing her child into maturity. With coffee, you nurture a seedling all the way from the nursery to the plantation.

In Papua New Guinea, parents take great pride in their children. The same emotion and effort is carried over into the upkeep of the coffee plantations. From when the dawn breaks right through until sunset that evening, the locals are at the plantations and in the coffee fields nurturing and raising the plants.

The next step in the Journey of Coffee is picking the cherry. Click here to continue your Journey or use the menu to your left.