Working together to end poverty and injustice

Supporting coffee farmers

Domingas de Silva and her husband Laurindo with their two children, Alberto and Domito.

Domingas de Silva and her husband Laurindo are coffee farmers in a small community in Maubaralisa, Liquica District. With the support of Oxfam and MCE-A, they are learning new techniques for maintaining their coffee crop. A new processing machine means they will increase the income they receive from the crop, allowing them to repair their home and improve the water supply.

Domingas and Laurindo have two children, Alberto and Domito, who attend the local primary school. Their home is a 12km walk from Maubara town and approximately 80km south west of Dili.

Maubaralisa sits high above Liquica township and has a cool mountainous climate frequently swept by fog and drizzle during the wet season, which runs from November to July. Small pockets of teak and mahogany survive in gullies and steep hillsides. The water supply is plentiful all year round and the soil is rich.

Coffee – 30 cents a kilogram

Farmers prepare a concrete pad for drying and sorting coffee beans.

Domingas and Laurindo, along with 50 other farmers, are members of the Timorese coffee farmers co-operative MCE-A. The coffee harvest begins with the first cherries picked in April and finishes in August. Their two hectare coffee farm yields approximately 400kg of high quality Arabica coffee. Last season they were paid 30 cents per kg of red beans – a total of US$120 for the yield.

Laurindo commented that he has received a declining yield from his coffee trees over the past five years. During Indonesian rule the coffee plantations were used as revenue for the Indonesian army. They were poorly maintained with no investment in research and maintenance. Consequently, most trees are old, large and rangy, making picking difficult.

Like the other farmers in Maubaralisa, Domingas and Laurindo supplement their income by raising goats, pigs and chickens, and by selling vegetables in the community market.

Toward Fairtrade

With the support of MCE-A, Laurindo will learn new techniques for maintaining his trees and obtain new varieties to plant to increase production. Along with other co-operative members, he has been building a concrete pad for drying and sorting coffee beans. With the support of MCE-A, a new processing machine for the beans is being installed, enabling the farmers to process their beans to the more valuable green bean stage.

MCE-A will also assist the farmers in negotiating a better price for their coffee and will investigate the options for accessing Fairtrade markets.

Domingas hopes that any increased income for their coffee will allow her to repair her house and improve the water supply.