Kongo Coffee’s Managing Director, Jerry Kapka has been in the coffee business for almost thirty years.
He said the coffee business creates opportunity for his people in the Chimbu Province to earn cash and improve their livelihoods.
Mr. Kapka got into the coffee business after retiring as a Secondary School teacher in 1990 and now exports nearly twenty countries around the world.
10 to 15 fifteen containers of coffee bags are sent to over ten countries including Japan and Germany in a month – from this factory in Chuave, Chimbu Province.
Local farmers and buyers from the six districts in the province sell their coffee here at Kongo Coffee’s dry mill factory.
The coffee parchments are then processed to green beans and transported to Lae to be exported overseas.
Kongo Coffee was established here in Chimbu Province in 1990. The Managing Director Jerry Kapka said his business began through a collaborative effort between him and the local coffee farmers.
In the factory is the processing mill where the coffee parchments are processed. There’s also a lab where the green beans go through quality check before packed for export.
Another area is the food tech where the premium green beans are roasted and ground using this machine. They are then packed and sealed to sell.
Mr. Kapka said he continued to stay in the coffee business for almost thirty-years, after retiring as a secondary school teacher to help impact the lives of his people.
Early this year, the coffee industry corporation received K10 million under the government’s covid-19 stimulus package to support coffee farmers and licensed operators.
Kongo Coffee was one of the 65 recipients to implement the government’s initiative.
Kongo Coffee Managing Director, Jerry Kapka said the impact of the government’s coffee price support can be noticeable once sustained.
