Wahgi Mek Coffee Plantations
Waghi Mek Plantations is a company formed by the North Waghi and South Waghi Local Government Councils in the eary 1970s. This company owned several coffee plantations inside the Waghi Valley both in South Waghi and North Waghi areas. The company's main coffee processing factory was at Tolu Village inside Tsenglap Territory. Waghi Mek Plantations at one time was one of the biggest coffee exporters in early 1980s. However, the once famous Waghi Mek Plantations does not exist any more. Waghi Mek, at the peak of its operations was once the pride of Waghi People. Tsenglap women composed beautiful songs about Waghi Mek.
Wahgi Mek Plantations owned several big trucks and machinery. During the early 1980s when most Papua New Guineans were new to the Business World, wahgi Mek was well and truely away. It is very sad to say that the poor old uneducated Wahgi councillors were at the whims of some foreigners who dictated how Wahgi Mek should be managed. Wahgi Mek was a successful company, by now Wahgi Mek should have expended into a megacorporation. Wahgi Mek Plantations was owned 75 percent by the Wahgi Councils. It is a very sad story for the Wahgi People.
Pride Of Wahgi
Apart from coffee plantations, Wahgi Mek did engage in some other activities. Wahgi Mek owned Jimi Earth Moving and Premier Earth Moving based at Minj. Wahgi Mek was distributing fuel from Banz all the way to Tinsley Health Centre and back down to Kerowagi in the Chimbu Province. Wahgi Mek also owned three (3) Mack Trucks which were hauling cargo along the Highlands Highway.
The Tolu Factory had in it, a state of the art coffee processing and green bean machine imported all the way from England, and the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea. The new Tolu Factory was officially opened by then Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Sir Julius Chan in 1982. Premier Earth Moving at Minj was sold in 1989. Between 1997 and 1998, all the tipper trucks were sold out. Today Wahgi Mek is no more, all the plantations were taken over by the landowners and the Tolu Factory is just concrete slabs.
In 2010 the Somare Government was embarking on reviving the Wahgi Mek Plantation by making a committment of K20 million for Rehabilitation Exercise. The Wahgi Mek rehabilitation cannot go ahead because of certain issues which needs resolving, which obviously have no possible solution to them. Wahgi Mek cannot be revived for obvious reasons such as conflict of interest, politics, and landowner issues.