Women Coffee Farmers in Papua New Guinea

Women coffee farmers play an important role in Papua New Guinea's coffee industry, particularly in the country's smallholder coffee communities. Their work can include planting and maintaining coffee, harvesting ripe coffee cherries, sorting coffee and participating in post-harvest activities. Women are also increasingly involved in training, coffee businesses and other parts of the coffee value chain. 

To understand Papua New Guinea Coffee, it helps to understand the people behind it. Long before green coffee reaches a roaster, farmers and their families have already invested enormous amounts of work in growing, harvesting and preparing the coffee.

What Role Do Women Play in Papua New Guinea Coffee?

Women participate in many of the jobs that turn coffee from a plant into a crop ready for processing and sale.

The Papua New Guinea Women in Coffee Association describes men and women working together in coffee gardens, with women involved in planting, maintaining and harvesting coffee. Research cited by the association also identified women as being particularly involved in harvesting and hand sorting. 

Those details matter because harvesting and sorting aren't abstract parts of coffee production. They are hands-on decisions and tasks that help determine what happens to the coffee after it leaves the farm.

Research supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has continued to recognize women's role in PNG coffee, particularly in harvesting and processing. Its smallholder coffee training program specifically addresses women's participation alongside production, processing and marketing. 

Why Are Smallholder Farmers Important to Papua New Guinea Coffee?

Smallholder farming is central to Papua New Guinea's coffee industry. ACIAR reports that more than 85% of the country's coffee is produced by smallholders and that coffee is an important source of household income in many highland communities. 

That structure helps explain why talking about Papua New Guinea coffee without talking about farming families gives an incomplete picture.

Coffee production can involve many different stages and many different people. Within smallholder households, the division of work may include preparing and maintaining coffee gardens, harvesting, processing and handling coffee before it moves farther through the supply chain.

If you want to learn more about the coffee itself—its origin, flavor, roast and brewing characteristics, read our guide to Papua New Guinea Coffee.

Women's Work From Coffee Garden to Cup

The role of women in Papua New Guinea coffee isn't limited to picking coffee cherries.

The history published by the Papua New Guinea Women in Coffee Association describes women learning and experimenting with practices across the coffee process, including picking, pulping, fermenting, washing, drying, roasting and cupping. It also describes women who had moved into owning and operating coffee farms, trading coffee and advocating for better marketing opportunities. 

That doesn't mean every woman working in PNG coffee participates in every one of these activities. Papua New Guinea has many different communities, farms and businesses.

What it does show is that women's participation in coffee can extend well beyond a single job on the farm.

That's important because coffee quality is built through a chain of decisions. Harvesting matters. Processing matters. Sorting matters. Storage and handling matter. Roasting matters.

By the time we roast a coffee at Weaver's, a great deal of work has already happened.

What Challenges Do Women Coffee Farmers in Papua New Guinea Face?

One challenge documented in PNG coffee research is the relationship between work and who receives the economic return from that work.

ACIAR's smallholder coffee training material reports that women's contribution to coffee production has declined in some communities because women perceived that the return for their coffee labor was too low. The same material notes that when women receive adequate returns for their work, they can contribute significantly to harvesting and processing while the additional income can benefit their families. 

Access to agricultural training has also been identified as an issue. Extension officers help farmers learn improved farming and production techniques, and an Australian government coffee-industry project identified women's access to those services as a constraint on fuller participation in the coffee value chain. 

Access to capital creates another hurdle for women who want to move from agricultural work into business. ACIAR research published in 2025 describes difficulties rural women can face accessing formal banking and financing while trying to build businesses. 

These are more than abstract economic issues. They can affect who receives training, who can invest in a business and who benefits financially from the work involved in producing coffee.

What Is the Papua New Guinea Women in Coffee Association?

The Papua New Guinea Women in Coffee Association, or PNGWICA, grew out of efforts to better recognize and represent women's participation throughout the country's coffee industry.

An inaugural "Recognizing the Role of Women in Coffee" conference was held in 2012. The association subsequently developed with support from Papua New Guinea's Coffee Industry Corporation and became formally established in 2016. 

The organization was designed to give women a stronger voice along the coffee value chain and to support their participation in areas ranging from coffee cultivation and post-harvest work to trading and other commercial activities.

In 2022, Papua New Guinea joined the International Women's Coffee Alliance global chapter network. The PNG chapter identified priorities that included connecting women in coffee and developing capabilities across cultivation, milling, roasting and commercialization.

The significance is straightforward: women aren't simply participants in coffee production. They are increasingly organizing around their role in the wider coffee industry.

How Training and Better Coffee Practices Can Create Opportunity

How coffee is harvested and processed can affect quality, consistency and ultimately the price farmers receive for their coffee. That makes practical knowledge and training important for both farmers and the broader coffee industry.

A multi-year ACIAR-supported project in Papua New Guinea worked with the Coffee Industry Corporation, Curtin University and CSIRO on issues affecting smallholder coffee production. The project developed training materials covering coffee production and livelihoods and tested approaches designed to improve labor efficiency, processing and coffee quality. 

ACIAR reported in 2025 that helping participating farmers improve bean quality and connecting them with buyers willing to pay premiums for quality contributed to higher incomes. The project also sought to increase women's participation and economic opportunities. 

The important connection isn't that coffee produced by women is automatically better. It isn't.

The connection is that knowledge, careful harvesting and processing, access to training and access to markets can all matter to both coffee quality and the economics of producing it.

Women Are Building Coffee Businesses, Too

Women's participation in Papua New Guinea coffee is not limited to farm labor.

One example comes from a village savings and loan initiative studied through an ACIAR-supported project in the Bena area near Goroka.

The program gave participants a community-based way to save and borrow money. ACIAR reports that women used funds to invest in new and existing businesses, including coffee buying. In one documented case, a woman and her husband used a loan to establish a business buying coffee cherries. 

The example is important because it shows another side of the coffee value chain.

Growing and harvesting coffee are essential, but economic opportunity can also come from buying, processing, trading and operating coffee businesses.

The Papua New Guinea Women in Coffee Association's own history similarly records women moving into coffee-farm ownership, trading and other industry activities. 

Why the People Behind Papua New Guinea Coffee Matter

When we talk about coffee origins, it's easy to focus on altitude, processing methods and tasting notes. Those things matter, but coffee doesn't arrive at a roastery by itself.

People plant and maintain coffee. People harvest the cherries. People process, sort and prepare the coffee before it ever becomes green coffee ready for export and then the responsibility passes to the roaster.

At Weaver's Coffee & Tea, our job begins much later in that journey. We roast coffee in San Rafael, California, but the quality and character we're working with have already been shaped by decisions and work that took place at origin.

That's why understanding an origin means understanding more than a name printed on a coffee bag. It also means respecting the people and work behind the coffee.

Explore Papua New Guinea Coffee

If you'd like to learn more about the coffee itself, our Papua New Guinea Coffee guide explores the origin, flavor, growing region, roast profile and brewing methods in more detail.

Weaver's Papua New Guinea Coffee is a single-origin coffee from the Waghi Valley that we medium roast to develop a full, smooth body while retaining its dark-fruit, cocoa and balanced characteristics.

Explore Weaver's Papua New Guinea Coffee to learn more about the coffee and choose the format that works for the way you brew.