Association wants Timor coffee as a UNESCO protected heritage site – Africa

The vice-president of the Timor-Leste Coffee Association (ACT) argued that Timorese coffee, due to its historical value, should be protected heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“We thought coffee could be world heritage. This is because of its historical value. Coffee all over the world was being decimated” and ended up being saved by a discovery, in 1927, of a coffee plant from Timor, he said in an interview to Lusa Afonso Oliveira.

At that time, coffee plantations were dying due to rust, a disease that causes early leaf fall and twigs to dry out. The Portuguese discovered in the municipality of Ermera, south of Dili, “two bushes producing well”, recalled Afonso Oliveira.

The collected samples were sent to Portugal and for years a study was carried out that concluded that those two bushes “were resistant to rust disease”, he explained.

The discovery of the plant, a natural hybrid between Arabica and Robusta, would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in global genetic improvement programs for the Arabica coffee tree.

Currently, around 99% of Arabica coffee varieties, resistant to rust, cultivated around the world, have the Timor Hybrid (HDT) as their resistant parent.

“Timor hybrid because it is a cross between the Robusta variety and the Arabica, which could not be crossed. Biologically it could not be produced, because the Arabica has 46 chromosomes and the Robusta has 23 chromosomes, but it happened naturally”, explained the businessman, also of the sector.

In 1965, the Portuguese distributed seeds of the Timor hybrid throughout the world.

“This is a historical heritage, which saved coffee in the world and is planted in more than 50 countries”, said Afonso Oliveira, highlighting that the Oeiras research center is ready to support with all the documentation that attests to its scientific and historical importance. .

The vice-president of ACT also said that the original bush died in 2016, but it already has shoots and that the first generation bush remains in Oeiras.

“It’s unique in the world”, said Afonso Oliveira, also highlighting that in terms of landscape, if the mountains in Timor-Leste are covered in coffee, the country is contributing to alleviating climate change.

Another particularity of Timor-Leste coffee is that it is 100% organic.

“It grows in the forest, almost like a wild plant and we don’t take care of it, but if we start to take care of it, the quality could increase”, said the vice-president of ACT, noting, however, that the quality of the coffee depends on a chain, or that is, from the way it is harvested to the way it is then taken out of the machine to be served.

Timor coffee has another characteristic that also makes it special, which is the fact that it is the only one in the world that “produces in the shade of trees”.

“The plants we have have to grow in shade, otherwise they won’t grow or produce. Coffee in Timor-Leste only grows in shade”, he explained.