Avina of Kainantu wins coffee contest

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The National, Tuesday September 8th, 2015

 AVINA Coffee Cooperative of Kainantu district, Eastern Highlands, was declared the overall winner for this year’s National Cupping Competition on Friday.

The group was among 79 others that took part in the two-week competition held in Port Moresby. The cooperative won a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Langimar Producers of Morobe came second and won Consistent Cup award winning K20,000.

Rainbow Coffee Cooperative of Kainantu was given third placing and was awarded Aroma Cup prize ,with K15,000 prize money.

Rikarika Coffee Cooperative of Henganofi district, Eastern Highlands, took the fourth award for Flavoured Cup, winning K10,000 while Kubor-Kosem Ltd of Jiwaka was placed fifth with the Clean Culture Blend Cup award taking K5000. 

Coffee Industry Corporation chief executive officer Charles Dambui said CIC was dealing with 106 coffee cooperatives. 

Out of that, 79 made it to the national competition.

“Out of those 79 participants, 13 of them are Robusta producers, challenging Arabica. We have 10 from Maprik, two from East New Britain and one from Morobe.

“This competition basically markets our farmers’ coffee-based on physical attributes as well as the cupping attributes.

Speaker Theo Zurenuoc, who was present during the award night, said the competition was a positive initiative for the country.

This is the second year running.

“This initiative shows that we are serious about issues surrounding coffee in the country.”

Competition head judge Frazer Nabel said there had been some great coffee discovered during the competition. 

“There had been some really great coffees and we have discovered some interesting and unique profiles from all of the regions of Papua New Guinea.

“There is a bright future for the coffees in PNG and the farmers to really improve their livelihood through selling their coffees at a better price.

“I hope that this competition can go a long way to help us to realise this goal.”