Virgin mountain coffee comes from the mountain ranges across the Tairora area, stretching into the Arona and Yonki valley and the Bilimoya area. Its name was given by the supplier of this unique coffee and refers to the untouched and remote mountain ranges of the area. Virgin mountain coffee is supplied by Mr. Ben Akike, who started his business in 2016 and since then he has been a loyal supplier to Monpi Coffee.
Mr. Akike’s center of operation, Virgin Mountain Coffee LTD is located along the Obura Highway, approximatively a two and a half hour drive form Goroka town. It is a parchment buying operation and under agreement with a processor in Goroka where the coffee is processed into green beans and delivered to Monpi Coffee Exports.
Most of the coffee trees along the surrounding mountains are rather old. Coffee was introduced into these highlands from the Aiyura research station in the early 1950’s and a large number of this first trees in this area are still there.
The soil fertility in the area is excellent and limited to non-chemical fertilizers. Composted garden mulch or cherry pulp will be applied in coffee and food gardens. The absence of chemicals is quite practical in nature, as it is expensive and complicated to bring in the area: for many farmers, there is no easy access to roads. This rich loamy clay soil is predominant in the area, where most of the coffee planted is Arusha and Blue Mountain. The cherry is hand-picked by farmers and the pulping, fermentation and washing is done at their homestead. The parchment is sun dried before being delivered to the buying station.
