Vitis to produce instant coffee

​ Vitis Industries Limited will be establishing the country’s first middle sized coffee processing factory in Wau District, Morobe Province.

The idea is to cut out the middle man by controlling the quality processing and production of coffee products for selling at an affordable price, as well as for exporting.

Vitis Industries Limited, Managing Director, Sergei Mossin, says currently there is an oversupply of coffee on the market following the entry of non-traditional coffee growing countries.

He says this oversupply will continue for a number of years and it is not a viable option to sell coffee beans to a middle man to produce coffee products.

“Instead of selling our coffee cheap to some middle people overseas, we process it locally for local consumption and export the final product which can be sold directly to the public at  a better price.

“Because what we realise when we try to export our coffee right now in the form of green beans, the international market is oversupplied. Plenty different countries which never grew coffee before, now they are growing coffee. In Nepal and Laos, Thailand, in Taiwan, and South China.

“Then these traders they use the situation to buy our coffee at a  cheaper price, blend with some low quality coffee’s and sell to consumers on high price,” Mossin said.

The design of the factory, which will include room for extension, will be developed in China and  once built, will be able to produce one hundred of kilos of instant coffee per hour.

Mossin says this will require about 500 – 600 kilograms of green beans per hour operating for 24 hours non-stop for two months, with two to three days of cleaning and repairs.

To meet this demand a 360 hectare coffee plantation, near Wau Town, has been secured by Vitis industries Limited and already has  200 employees  working on site.

Coffee beans are almost ready for harvest, says mossin, who  has engaged a large number of pickers.

“During the harvest we employ a lot of coffee pickers. Mostly around 300 people. Right now the harvest is coming, maybe February, then we will employ pickers to pick our coffee and it gives a big boost to local economy in Wau.

“We employ such  a large number of people and it’s the only form of employment for people in these place,’’ says Mossin.

The plantation nursery has on site around three million coffee tree which will be planted in February or March, and will increase productivity by threefold.

Small holders and coffee growers will also be involved through their purchase of their coffee beans which Mossin says is of quality standard.

A new water system is currently being worked which will feed into the plantation,

“We are trying to improve the Factory too because until today this plantation has no water supply. The water we use for production and processng is not really fresh so now we are building a new water supply system which will produce 3,000 – 4,000 litres of water per hour,” Mossin said.

Sergei Mossin checking coffee beans at the Vitis Industries Limited factory outside Port Moresby.

Author: 
Cedric Patjole