The plan, prepared with support from ADB, Coffee Quality Institute, and Timor Coffee Association, targets a doubling of coffee production by 2030 and a 270% increase in coffee export earnings. To achieve these goals, the plan maps out a series of actions to strengthen basic research, production, quality and value addition, market access, and domestic consumption.
Coffee is Timor-Leste’s most historic and important crop and has been the country’s largest non-oil export for the past 150 years. (Source: ADB)
“This is Timor-Leste’s first ever national coffee sector plan and will help us to create jobs and lift coffee producers out of poverty,” said Mr. Martins at the event.
Implementation of the plan will see a significant increase in investment in the sector to support coffee farm rehabilitation, training, and development. Preliminary activities under the plan have already begun and will now be scaled up through partnerships between the government and the private sector.
The new plan, described as a model for collaboration between government and the private sector, was prepared following extensive consultations with government agencies, coffee farmers, processors and exporters, and nongovernment organizations. The Timor Coffee Association, a non-profit trade association, played a significant role in developing the plan and will work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to coordinate implementation.
“The Coffee Sector Development Plan builds on recent good progress and will help to accelerate the modernization of the coffee sector,” said ADB Country Economist Mr. David Freedman.
Coffee is Timor-Leste’s most historic and important crop and has been the country’s largest non-oil export for the past 150 years. It is grown by around one-third of households in Timor-Leste and 20% of households rely on the crop for cash income./.