PNG is an extremely diverse country, with over 800 different languages spoken. Most tribes from the highlands had minimal contact with the western world until the 1930s, as exploration in PNG had been minimal. PNG is now a paradox between Western influence and indigenous traditions.
Commercial coffee production started in Papua New Guinea in the 1920s, with seeds brought from Jamaica’s Blue Mountain, a Typica known as Jamaica Blue Mountain. At that time most of the coffee production came from 18 large plantations. Plantations still exist in PNG, it only account for 15% of the total production; most of the production now comes from smallholders who tend to their coffee gardens, as they call them locally. These smallholders are subsistence farmers (meaning they live of their land), and they also grow coffee—there are no coffee farmers per se. Each garden might have anywhere from a couple to a couple hundred trees of coffee and parchment deliveries can range from 25–65 kg.
Ulya is a centralized plantation mill which purchases cherry from smallholder farmers in the highlands. With central milling and drying, our partners on the ground control quality at the processing level — day lots are cupped and separated to build our containers and lots which are microlot worthy are processed separately.
The Ulya plantation is located next the Ulya Mill in the heart of the Waghi Valley.The high altitude and cooler climate at Ulya is ideal for quality coffee cultivation. The plantation supplies high quality cherries to be processed at the Ulya Mill, which has recently expanded its milling capacity, including a new wet-milling line, and waste water processing plant.
Ulya Mill also processes cherry from the surrounding coffee blocks of the Ulya Plantation. The beans have similar characteristics to the Ulya Plantation coffee. The coffee from this area is sold as a high end plantation style under the banner Ulya AX.
With certified Chain of Custody processed in place for the mill, Monpi guarantees traceability and quality of its Ulya beans.
PNG is another one of those countries which has great of potential but it is still far away from hitting its peak. It has heirloom varieties and great altitude, but its social and economic problems makes it extremely hard to achieve top-quality coffee. We are happy, nonetheless, with the quality we are seeing this year and cleanliness in the cup is one of the biggest attributes for these. As always, we will push the bar for better quality!
— Piero Cristiani
Origin: Papua New Guinea
Region: Waghi Valley, Western Highlands
Farm: Various smallholder farmers
Variety: Typica, Arusha
Altitude: 1400–1800 masl
Proccess: MethodFully washed
