Coffee growing locations don’t come much more exotic than  Papua New Guinea (PNG). Close to the border of Eastern Highlands Province, the district of Chuave lies, central to Papua New Guinea and within the New Guinea Highlands that stretch across the island of New Guinea, second largest in the world. The Highlands themselves are actually a chain of mountain ranges, and the Bismarck range, with Mount Wilhelm as its highest peak, is where the coffee growing slopes that produce the cherry for Elimbari are. PNG is what is known as a megadiverse country – one of 17 identified countries that exhibit over 5,000 endemic plant species and bordering marine ecosystems.

Coffee is grown mainly by smallholders in ‘gardens’ – a small plot of land that contains everything from a few trees up to a three-hectare plot at most. There are a few more traditional plantations, but these account for just under 20% of production. Once picked coffee is pulped, and then dry fermented for 24 hours in wooden or plastic boxes before being washed and dried on sails – stretched tarpaulin drying beds. Coffee is then sold to collectors and taken to the renovated dry mill facility where it is processed and hand sorted where necessary before bagged and exported.