The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is leveraging the skills and capacity of Timor-Leste’s high youth population to help the country’s thriving coffee industry become a key contributor to inclusive growth and sustainable development.
ADB’s assistance, through a $225,000 grant sourced from ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund, will help develop Timor-Leste’s coffee industry through the preparation of a comprehensive coffee sector development plan that will be implemented with the private sector and the youth.
“The initial ADB diagnostic work for the coffee sector development plan has highlighted a range of issues where financing and other development assistance is needed,” said David Freedman, ADB Country Economist for Timor-Leste. “Youth engagement is a key issue and achieving adoption of good agricultural practices at scale remains a challenge.”
Coffee is grown by almost one-third of all Timorese households and has been the country’s largest non-oil export for the past 150 years. Coffee has the potential to play an important role in the future development of Timor-Leste.
Conflict and under investment in the coffee sector in 1975-1999 contributed to a loss of farming skills and left a legacy of aged trees. Since 2000, numerous reports by the government and its development partners have identified a lack of industry coordination as a constraint to the development of the coffee sector. Progress has been made in training farmers and rolling out replanting programs but much more work needs to be done.
