In a groundbreaking milestone for Papua New Guinea’s coffee industry, leading agriculture entrepreneur Dr Joel Waramboi and Wia Trade have paid more than K7.8 million directly into the hands of smallholder farmers and are now finalising the country’s first-ever nationally owned instant coffee factory in Nadzab, Morobe Province.
This transformational initiative — supported by the PNG Government, World Bank, and CICL-PACD Project — signals a new era of local ownership, value addition, and economic empowerment.
Dr Waramboi shared his vision during a high-level site visit attended by World Bank and Government officials, where he unveiled Wia Trade’s state-of-the-art, fully automated instant coffee plant. The facility also processes 100% locally sourced beans from the Saruwaged Range under the Wia Trade brand Erap Coffee.
Apart from instant coffee, Wia Trade is also going into producing bottled water on site, and has plans to venture into downstream processing of cocoa, coconuts, spices, fruit, and vegetables — building a diversified agro-processing hub in Morobe.
Since 2020, Wia Trade has exported 60 containers of coffee worth K10.84 million, with 70% going back to farmers.
“This is about our people,” says Dr Waramboi. “This factory is not foreign-owned — it is proudly Papua New Guinean.
