East Timor Cristo Liurai Coffee

Cristo Liurai is located in the western part of Letefoho, with all the members being based around the southern perimeter of the mountain protected by the watchful gaze of the Cristo Liurai statue. Since Francisco de Deus – the lead farmer of the Rotutu group introduced us to the members back in 2020, our partnership together has gone from strength to strength. Led by Luis Santos de Jesus (a school teacher by day), each of these 15 smallholder farmers have a great respect for their coffee and the land on which it is grown. Harvesting coffee from this area is not easy due to the steep terrain and dense forests, and members need to make the daily hike up the mountain to harvest their cherries, and at the end of the day will then carry their harvest back down the mountain, often balancing sacks of up to 30kg on their shoulders.

This is a very organised group, due to Luis’s oversight, who has worked tirelessly to encourage strict record keeping within the community of drying times and changes in moisture content, and for good reason. The past few years has seen increased early afternoon cloud coverage settling around the southern part of the Cristo Liurai mountain, which has meant an increased need for vigilance with drying and our continued support in providing portable drying racks to all of the group’s members. Because of this, drying times with this group are slightly longer, however good things come to those who wait and this group are, year-on-year, consistently producing fully washed coffee which is deliciously clean, sweet and well balanced.

East Timor has had a long history of colonisation, domination, and struggle for independence, the shadows of which are still visible today. Coffee was first brought to the island by Portuguese occupiers, who used it as an export crop alongside the much-sought-after sandalwood. After Portugal left the island in 1975 it was immediately invaded and annexed by Indonesia, and during the bloody occupation and resistance that followed coffee cultivation was an afterthought.

Since independence in 1999 coffee production has increased and has become an important part of East Timor’s economy, today being second only to oil and gas in terms of exports. The whole country is “organic by default”, with a distinct lack of man-made fertilisers or pesticides, and potentially the only country in the world to produce exclusively organically-grown coffee.

A third of the country relies on coffee for their income, with the majority grown in the municipality of Ermera—responsible for roughly half the country’s production—and within it the sub-district of Letefoho (where our import partners Karst Organics work).

Did you know?

• Although East Timor’s coffee exports make up less than one percent of the global coffee trade, they still account for about 80 percent of the country’s overall exports.
• The majority of coffee grown in East Timor is processed using the washed method, distinguishing it from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia which favour the wet-hulled or Giling Basah method.
• The Timor hybrid, a cross between arabica and robusta coffee plants that has the disease resistance of the latter and the cup quality of the former, was discovered on East Timor in 1920. This hybrid has served as the base of many new varieties bred to combat the coffee leaf rust disease.

Our speciality coffees are 100% traceable and ethically sourced. We work direct with farmers, or through trusted partners, to bring you the best coffee from around the world.

Sourced in partnership with: Karst Organics
Producer relationship length: Since 2020