Introduction of coffee varieties in Asian countries in East Timor coffee producing areas

In Asia, there are many coffee producing countries, such as Laos, Indonesia, East Timor, China and Thailand. Although East Timor has a small land area and low popularity, it also produces a lot of high-quality coffee.

East Timor Timor-Leste

The Democratic Republic of East Timor (Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste), an island country at the eastern end of the Nusa Tenggara Islands, includes the Oecussi area from Timor to the north coast of the east and west, as well as the nearby Ataro Island and Yaku Island at the eastern end, with West Timor in Indonesia in the west and the Tiwen Sea facing Australia in the south, covering an area of 15007 square kilometers.

The East Timorese flag is rectangular and red, with an overlapping pattern of a black equilateral triangle and a yellow isosceles triangle on the left, and a white pentagram on the black equilateral triangle. The red represents the struggle of the East Timorese people for independence and freedom, the black triangle represents the anti-enlightenment, the yellow triangle represents the traces that East Timor has been colonized by Portugal, Indonesia and other countries, and there is a small star tilting slightly to the left in the center, representing the light guiding independence and freedom.

The territory of East Timor is mountainous, with more than 1000 metres above sea level in most of the mountains, with plains and valleys along the coast. In Timor-Leste, coffee is largely organically grown, with few chemicals and pesticides, as East Timor's own agriculture is more ecological and, secondly, the country is poor and does not have the funds to buy chemicals such as pesticides.

Most of East Timor has a tropical rain forest climate, while the plains and valleys have a savanna climate, with an average temperature of 26 ℃ and annual rainfall of 1200-1500 mm. With high elevations, volcanic soil and appropriate rainfall, these geographical conditions provide favorable conditions for coffee cultivation.

Coffee producing area

The coffee producing areas of East Timor mainly include Ermera Ermera, Manufai Manufahi, Ainaro Ainaro, Liquica Liquica, Aleu Aileu and Bobonaro Bobonaro, the most famous of which is Elmera, which accounts for 50 per cent of the country's total coffee production.

Ermera Ermera: located in the west of East Timor, is an inland county where coffee grows on peaks with an average elevation of 1250 meters, with an average temperature of about 21 ℃ and rainfall of 2500-3000 mm, which is very suitable for coffee trees.

Coffee variety

In Timor, the more famous variety of coffee is the Timothy "Hibrido de Timor". Hibrido de Timor, a natural hybrid of Arabica and Robusta, was first discovered in the early 20th century and became popular because of its high resistance to coffee leaf rust, insect pests and other diseases.

Because it is a natural cross between Arabica and Robusta, it belongs to Arabica coffee plant, but it has the disease resistance gene of Robusta. Therefore, the first generation of F1 hybrid group was produced by crossing Timor variety with Kaddura, which is now Katim Catimor.

In 1961, the Columbia Research Center began to study varieties resistant to leaf rust, such as Kaddura and Timor Hybrid. After 23 years of research, six varieties such as Castillo were developed and widely planted in 2005.