As Papua New Guinea celebrates its 41st Independence anniversary, one local company also adds to the celebration with its little yet significant milestone.
Bomai Coffee – the brand- is also celebrating its first anniversary this month since its humble beginnings in the back waters of a rugged, relentless and uncompromising landscape in Chimbu Province.
It was in this landlocked area that one brave man – Paul Sirigine – decided to step out in faith to help ordinary coffee growers in the Bomai Area of the province that saw the birth of his company, Sirigine Coffee Producers (SCP).
Since last year at this time just before the 40the Independence anniversary Sirigine Coffee Producers attended their first coffee tasting event that was held at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby. It was here that they showcased their unique Bomai Coffee brand.
The company’s executive officer, Samuel Raffana has continued to keep the brand moving from strength to strength.
“Since last year we have we polished our product in terms of: Packaging, Roasting profile, Grind sizes and many more.”
“Our Roasters went overseas for Roasting and Cupping trainings that will add more value to our product.
As such our product is selling at some big shops in Lae, POM and Rabaul. We are hoping to receive some orders from Hotels, Restaurants, Catering Services providers and Coffee Shops,” Raffana said.
He said that apart from producing and selling Roasted Bomai Coffee, “we are also exporting the same qualities in overseas gourmet coffee markets. We have many doors opened for our Intrinsic Quality Single Origin Bomai Coffee in gourmet coffee markets in the world and we are looking forward to enjoyable 2016/2017 Coffee Year,” and excited Raffana said in an email.
And as the saying goes, “fortune always favours the brave”, and so begins this story.
Sirigine Coffee Producers (SCP) is a corporation in the Chimbu Province in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) venturing into Arabica Coffee Farming, Buying, Processing, Roasting and/or Exporting. Paul Sirigine, the sole proprietor, humbly started as smallholder farmer in the 1990s. Sirigine Coffee Producers was participating extremely well in Papua New Guinea Coffee Industry for more than 10 years as one of the major suppliers to existing exporters, like Monpi Coffee Ltd, Out Span PNG Ltd and New Guinea Highlands Coffee Ltd.
Organising and working in partnership with coffee producing communities in Bomai Areas of Chimbu Province in the areas of quality investment programs, and farmers’ assistance pays in better volume and quality, and consistent productions. It established strong farmers’ networks with local fleet logistic support.
After some years of its operation, it had built up enough reputation and resources to erect a brand new dry coffee processing mill, which is in operation since 2013. It has now moved into Exporting Raw Beans & Roasted Bomai Coffee for its Domestic and International Markets.
Sirigine Coffee Producers is focused on exporting and positioning its very own locally produced flavor of Epicurean PNG Washed Premium Smallholders Arabica Coffee to the world of coffee as Bomai Coffee to an exclusively confined market.
Our specialisation is Bomai Coffee, composed of single sourced Arabica Coffee from Bomai region of Chuave District, Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea. We guarantee our bean mix is 100% of Bomai origin, and never blended to provide our customers with the purest Bomai flavour. As we say, our coffee is “not mixed, and never blended”.
All of our products comes from South-East of Chimbu Province. Simbu is located in the central highlands cordillera of Papua New Guinea, which shares geographical boundaries with five provinces; Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Gulf and Madang. It is a province with very rugged mountain terrains but it is significant source of organically produced coffee.
Annual rainfall totals are considerably higher; 3385mm at Karimui and 4855mm at Bomai plateau while only 2224mm on most flat areas of Simbu.
Typical daily temperatures ranges from 28.5 Degree Celsius during the day to 20 Degree Celsius at night. Altitudes of five districts range from 1500 metres to 2000 metres above sea level.
From the beginning, Sirigine Coffee Producers has valued the Quality in the process of cultivation and picking of coffee by the local “smallholder farmers”. To create the best possible Bomai Coffee, we educate the smallholder farmers to select the ripest beans and combine these time honored traditions with the latest in roasting techniques. Our packaging and labeling of the finished product is all handled manually thus ensuring the quality of our product. Through this process, we ensure and enhance the distinctive body and flavour of Bomai Coffee.
In our effort for sustaining the utmost levels of quality, we adopted standards set by specialty coffee experts to guarantee an adherence to a targeted flavour, aroma, body, and acidic levels.
Furthermore, we strive to educate, establish and sustain measures which sustain the forestland biodiversity found within and surrounding local coffee farms, where additional sustainable farming methods are encouraged and implemented. We trust in continuous improvement in all our systems, as this focus is the guarantor of true quality.
We encourage fair-trade and coffee harvesting practices in harmony with nature. Our reward is always sourcing the best possible beans, so that we may provide our customers with the best possible green beans and roasts.
However, the best possible beans must come from the best possible and healthy coffee trees. We educate farmers to take care of the coffee trees and their surrounding flora, as these relationships are nearly symbiotic in nature.
Our support goes out to the smallholder farmers whose methods seek to revitalize the farmland and sustain the biodiversity of its surrounding areas for generations to come. We established strong fleet logistics support for smallholder farmers with door step services.