Timor FTO

COUNTRY:  Timor

Coffee grown in Timor accounts for a tiny portion of the world’s coffee production, 0.2% to be exact. Despite its small scale globally, it has an incredibly unique and opportunistic position as they are the largest single source organic coffee producer globally. Their emerging coffee is described as “one of the finest and most unique coffees in the world” by The National Co-operative Business Assosication. Originally, coffee was introduced to Timor 400 years ago by Portugese colonists, however this was all destroyed by leaf rust until a new coffee varietal called Híbrido de Timor was introduced in the 1900s.

REGION:  Ainaro, Ermera, and Lequisa, East Timor

Grown wild on a tropical island at higher altitudes makes this coffee special as well as unusual and unorthodox. Because the coffee has limited attention and intervention, these plantations are organic. This region has a fertile terrain for agriculture, due to the abundance of rivers. It has a costal zone as well as mountainous zones, including the highest point in East Timor.

PRODUCER:  Cooperativa Café Timor (CCT)

This intriguing coffee is sourced from family-owned farms around Cooperativa Café Timor (CCT). The CCT has more than 20,000 members in East Timor, specifically in the Ainaro, Ermera and Lequisa districts. In Timor today, producers cultivate their coffee on less than one hectare of land. CCT was established in 1994 to help small producers market their coffee internationally. Through a free healthcare initiative, CCT has funded the operation of seven rural clinics, three mobile clinic teams and eleven community healthcare teams that have treated more than two million patients since 2001.