Elections not best thing for coffee

COFFEE harvests were badly affected by last year’s general election, a Mt Hagen-based coffee grower and businessman says.
The election happened during the peak of the coffee season, but many workers left to participate in the elections, Nebilyer Coffee Limited managing director James Leahy said.
“2017 was a long and hard year for most coffee farmers as we were coming off a bumper crop in 2016,” he said.
“With expected low crop levels, the farmers and processors were further negatively impacted by the 2017 national election.
“The majority of people who work on farms and own smaller coffee plots went off with the candidates on the campaign trail hoping for free money instead of focusing on true money.”
Leahy said last year’s problems may affect this year’s harvest because the maintenance of crops that was to have been carried out at the end of the year was not done.
“The elections have always been detrimental to the coffee industry,” he said.
“We are hoping for a better, steadier drawn crop for 2018. But this may be a low crop with small beans as many farmers did not prune, clean or prepare their trees at the end of last season due to the elections.”
Leahy said coffee was underperforming because it was increasingly becoming a difficult sector to operate in.
“PNG should be exporting up to two million bags a year,” he said.
“The industry has become unattractive and those who remain in it are there due to necessity or because of their love for the coffee industry.”