Subscribe to Our Email List to Stay Informed There are many ways you can get involved with Friends of Baucau. Our membership is free and operates through our email list. Click <here> to send our project officer, Fiona Young, an email to find out more about how you can Get Involved! back to top

pictures by Jenny Drysdale

Join Working Groups or Come to Our Bi-monthly Meetings For more information, see Who We Are and What's new? for meeting details. Donation Click here to make on-line donations. Thank you for your generosity. back to top

	Get Active At Friends of Baucau we undertake a number of activities to raise public awareness and funds for our projects. We host numerous events and hold many stalls. Fundraising is pivotal for the work of Friends of Baucau. An active and ongoing fundraising strategy and a team of dedicated and fully committed volunteers work tirelessly to ensure we have enough funds to maintain our projects and staff in Timor Leste. Coffee, tais, chocolate crocodiles and salt are on sale and funds raised go to assisting communities in Baucau. back to top

Fundraising "Buy Timor Leste coffee and help support the Baucau district" $6.50 per 250gm pkt. Friends of Baucau Timorese Coffee is sold to raise funds for Friends of Baucau projects, 50% of the sale of each packet goes to Friends of Baucau. Timor Leste beans are roasted, ground and packaged by Coffee Mio for the Friends of Baucau. The beans are the Arabica variety, which are organically grown in Timor Leste. Outlets where you can purchase this coffee are listed below.

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The Story of Timor Leste Coffee
Coffee has been grown in Timor Leste since colonial times under the Portuguese. By 1865 coffee accounted for over 50% of the value of exports from the colony. Under Indonesian rule, Timor Leste coffee growers were forced to sell their produce through a company owned by the military at lowers than standard world prices. Indonesian militias destroyed much of Timor Leste's coffee industry after the 1999 referendum, but it is quickly rebuilding with international assistance.

Although Timor Leste produces less than 1% of the world's coffee production, coffee is currently the country's major export commodity and provides a substantial income for nearly a quarter of the it's population.

Most coffee grown in Timor Leste (about 80%) is the high-quality arabica variety and has the added advantage of being grown organically. Some of the crop is processed using "wet-milling" or washing, by which the beans are separated from the fruit of pulp within 24 hours of being picked. The beans are then soaked in water to remove the mucous membrane layer before they are sun-dried. This process adds substantially to the value of the coffee.

The traditional and more common method is to sun-dry the cherries after they are harvested then remove the pulp and sell the beans for further processing in another country.

After initial "wet milling" or dry processing the majority of the crop is sent to Indonesia for further processing. Between 85-90% of Timor Leste crop is exported.

Depending on how it is processed, growers may receive from US$1 per 0.10kg to US$1 per 0.70kg. A recent World Bank estimate gave the annual cash income for an average coffee-producing family of six people as US$200 of which 90% comes from coffee.
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