“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love”, a famous  Turkish proverb.

Japanese are coffee lovers

Japan is the world's third largest importer of coffee after the United States and Germany. Japan imports raw coffee beans from over 40 countries, and 60% of Japan’s supply comes from Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia. There are over 10,000 coffee cafés plus several thousand coffee vending machines in Tokyo City alone. Incidentally the Japanese have even dedicated October 1st as the official Coffee Day in Japan!

Japanese researchers have even reported in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that coffee drinkers had a 51% lower liver cancer risk than those who almost never drank coffee.!

History of coffee

It is estimated that worldwide 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year, making it the most popular beverage all over the world. It is said that coffee as a world commodity is second only to oil!

Historical records show that after the year 1000, Arab traders brought coffee back to their homeland and cultivated it for the first time on plantations. They boil the beans to make a drink which they called “quahwa”, literally means 'that which prevents sleep'.

It was believed that coffee was first brought to Dejima, Nagasaki in Japan by the Dutch in the 17th Century. But it was only about 200 years later that coffee beans were officially allowed into Japan and it was then drank at special official functions, social gatherings among the upper classes and hotels where foreigners stayed. Gradually this black beverage found a following among other sectors in Japanese society.

Before WWII, Japanese tried to cultivate coffee in Taiwan, Ogasawara and Okinawa, but they failed due to a disease called “rust” which appeared on the leaves and ultimately killed the plants. But nevertheless Japan’s coffee industry continues to thrive.

Japan coffee business

Japan is the seventh largest coffee retail market in the world. The top four players are the Ueshima Coffee Co Ltd (UCC), Key Coffee Inc, Art Coffee Co. Ltd, and Unicafe Co. Ltd. They account for over half of fresh coffee retail sales in Japan. UCC is the leading company in Japan, owning three coffee plantations in Jamaica, Hawaii and Indonesia. UCC has total control over these ventures including pricing and marketing.

US-based Starbucks has effectively penetrated the Japanese consumers market especially among the women since the late 1990s. It is reported that Starbucks Japan is the company’s first and best performing overseas market outside North America. There are about 500 Starbucks outlets in Japan today.

Japan and Coffee in Timor Leste

Japan’s thirst for coffee has even reached the small island nation of Timor Leste, where coffee was introduced early in the nineteenth century by the Portuguese colonial authority in an attempt to establish a coffee export industry.

As early as 1934, the Japanese government had even funded a promiment local timorese company called “Sociedad Agricola Patria Trabalho” (SAPT) and by WWII, Japan had already owned 40% of that company. After the War, the Portugese government took over Japanese shares in the company as war compensation.

In 1994, Timor Leste’s coffee export industry was de-regulated when the Indonesian government’s monopoly on the industry was lifted. The American government then funded the National Co-operative Business Association (NCBA) collaborating with the local “Co-operativo Café Timor” (CCT), which has since then become the major player in coffee producing in Timor until today.

It is believed that 90% of coffee growers in Timor are small farmers cultivating on abandoned land after Timor Leste’s restoration of Independence on May 20th 2002. But coffee growing and production in Timor is constantly hampered by falling prices, inefficient management and production processes; poor infrastructure for transportation; and poor information sharing and coordination among the growers and small farmers.

Mr Rosario is a farmer and community organizer in Ebenu, Liquisa District. This mountainous area of 7 villages is 1,000-meter high and inhabited by a few hundred coffee-growing families. Rosario has 10 hectares of coffee land inherited from his father.

The average coffee producing family has six members and their estimated income is between $127 and $200 per family per year. 90% of their annual income comes from the coffee crop. The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old and will continue for the next 15 or 20 years.

“It is difficult because many villagers depend on the middle person who comes around and buy up the beans at a cheap price, roast the beans and then and then sell it in Dili at a much higher price.” Rosario said.

Unroasted Arabica beans are sold for USD 0.15 cents per kilo, almost 3 times higher than that of Robusta beans which fetches only USD 0.5-0.6 cents per kilo. The price differentiation is due to the popularity of Arabica coffee beans among westerners who usually prefer not too strong coffee. A cup of Robusta coffee is said to contain 2.0 – 2.5% of caffeine while a cup of Arabica contains only 1.0 – 1.5 % of Caffeine. On the streets of Timor’s capital city, Dili, ground Arabica coffee beans are sold for USD 1.50 per kilo. But in Japan, this same coffee is probably sold for 10 times the price! 

Japanese NGO support coffee growers in Timor

Peace Wind Japan (PWJ) is a Japanese non-governmental organization is working with a small group of families in Ermera District & has been facilitating them to sell their products to Japanese buyers. PWJ believes in using fair or alternative trade to motivate Timorese coffee growers to produce consistent quality coffee to help improve their incomes.

An international NGO, the Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC) in collaboration with a local Timorese human rights NGO, Yayasan Hak, has already assisted a group of farmers in Maubisse to sell their coffee beans to Alter Trade Japan (ATJ). In 2003, ATJ bought 36 tons of coffee beans and then sold it to the Japanese Consumers’ Cooperative union. This is the first time the Timorese farmers have sold their coffee directly to a foreign country.

ATJ is a body mandated to promote direct relationships between producer and consumer groups following principles of self-reliance and environmental sustainability. It also assisted some local communities with basic processing equipment which will be paid for by the group when their harvest is sold.

“We need to organize ourselves to be able to access foreign markets so that the small farmers can then be able to control their own production and incomes, instead of depending on others to do this”, said Rosario.

“Actually we are the ones who sweat and work hard to plant and harvest the coffee beans, so we should also be in control of what happens to our coffee”, he concluded.

The next time you hold a cup of hot aromatic coffee in your hands, don’t forget what the small coffee farmers in Timor did so that you could enjoy this “black gold”.

“O Coffee! Thus dost dispel all care, thou art object to the scholar. This is the beverage of the friends of God. In Praise of God!”

(Arabic Poem 1511)