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Cafe Timor Leste Dark Roast Whole Beans 250g
East Timor coffee production is small in the global coffee context, producing less than one percent of the international total. Nevertheless, coffee is crucial to the countryâs overall economy. It is the most important source of foreign exchange for East Timor and it serves as the primary source of income for about one-fourth of the countryâs population, or some 44000 families.
After the 1999 referendum for independence, the Indonesian army and its militias devastated East Timorâs coffee industry by killing and displacing farmers and their families, stealing and destroying most of the coffee crop, and destroying roads, warehouses, and other infrastructure vital to the industry.
But with support since 1994 from the US National Cooperative Business Association, some 19,000 small-scale coffee farmers have organized in 16 organic cooperatives and 493 producer groups to create a national cooperative structure known as the Cooperativa Café Timor. Since the 1999 referendum, the NCBA project has worked quickly and under difficult conditions, in order to help East Timor farmers export their crop.
Positive results from these collective efforts are already being seen in the countryside. Café Timor is the only independent producer of wet-milled coffee, which significantly increases its quality and market value.
NCBA funds and coffee premiums have also helped Café Timor set up a network of eight fully operational clinics and 24 mobile clinics, making them the largest provider of rural health care in the country!
Founded: In 1994
Region:
Coffee: Washed Arabica, SHB,
Organic Certified.
Characteristics: Sweet nutty flavor, medium acidity and smooth body
Still, a long road lies ahead to rebuild East Timor, ranging from basic needs for education and training to the repair of physical infrastructure and the implementation of âfarmer friendlyâ government policies. But for now, expanding East Timorâs access to the Fair Trade coffee market is considered the best alternative. As an example of how business and solidarity can work together, Cooperative Coffees member Just Coffee has partnered with the Madison-based East Timor Action Network (ETAN). Together they are offering delicious organically grown, Fair Trade coffee, while educating consumers about how they can help East Timor re-build its coffee economy - a core component in the survival of this new nation.
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