goodmorningpapua.com – Coffee from the mountains of Papua is including the best coffee in the world. One of them is coffee from the Bintang Mountains, Papua, which is included in the cup of excellent since it has a unique taste and is rarely found in other Arabica coffees.
Coffee from the mountains is also what assits young people in Papua to get an education. A researcher from the Papua Archeology Center, Hari Suroto, told how two students from Okbibab District, Bintang Mountains Regency, sold coffee produced from their parents to pay tuition. They are Alpius Uropmabin and Karolus Asemki.
“They sell coffee sent by their parents in the village to pay tuition and living expenses in Jayapura City,” Hari Suroto, who was once a lecturer in archeology at Cenderawasih University, Papua. Hari also helps market coffee farmers from the Bintang Mountains Regency. From there, Kopi Hari Bersama was born.
The Hari Bersama coffee, according to Hari Suroto, is a type of arabica coffee coming from a coffee plantation located 2,000 meters above sea level or masl. The coffee trees are located in semi-forest gardens, intercropping with secondary crops, especially sweet potatoes. “This is organic coffee, all rely on the goodness of nature,” he said.
Starting from the harvesting process by hand to processing of coffee cherries into green beans, it is also still manual by hand. The air temperature in Okbibab District is very cold. Therefore, the process of drying of coffee beans takes a long time.
To get to Jayapura City, coffee beans from the Bintang Mountains Regency can only be carried by air. Hari Suroto explained that from Okbibab District, the coffee beans were sent using a small twin otter type plane. This is not a scheduled flight and there is no road to the district yet.
The means of transportation only run if someone charters from Sentani, Jayapura, to Okbibab District, Bintang Mountains Regency. When the plane will return, then the farmers leave coffee. The shipping cost is IDR 7,500 per kilogram. Coffee beans from Okbibab District are packed in sacks that were used to hold rice containers.
Even if you want to go by road, then the terrain that is taken is very heavy and far. From Okbibab District to Oksibil, the capital of the Bintang Mountains District, it takes about one to 1.5 days to walk by foot. From Oksibil then travel about 277 kilometers to the north to Jayapura. Meanwhile, plane tickets from Sentani Airport, Jayapura, to Okbibab District cost Rp. 2 million per person.
In Okbibab District, there are no transmit towers for cell phone communication. “There are only SSB radio transmitters at the district office or pilot airline officers,” said Hari Suroto. To communicate with families in Jayapura, students use instant messaging WhatsApp, via a satellite network at an hourly rate.
Okbibab District Coffee, Bintang Mountains District, was first introduced by missionaries in the 1970s. The coffee seeds come from Moanemani, which is famous as a producer of Arabica coffee. It is the Mee Tribe who plants coffee in Moanemani, Kamu District, Dogiyai Regency, Papua.