Our Impact Strategy : Regenerating Farmer Livelihoods.
In Australia, we enjoy great coffee - to start our day, at work, with family and friends. In producing countries such as Timor-Leste, the livelihoods of coffee farming families are an uphill struggle. Typical families incomes for a coffee farming families are about US$500. And this hasn’t improved since 1999 when Timor first won its independence.
At Timor Mountain, living and working with farming families we came to understand how farmers were in a hole where they simply didn’t and would never have the means and resources ot work their way out. And that conventional trading did not provide the depth of engagement and resources for farmers to rebuild their degraded lands and productivity.
Over time, we formulated a three pronged solution to support farmers to tackle the problem:
Coffee Farmer Livelihoods Strategy
Specialty Coffee
Firstly, we work with farmers to to produce an exceptional specialty grade coffee offering sweetness, complexity and depth of flavour.
To achieve this flavour we take advantage of Timor-Leste’s unique heirloom coffee varieties and high elevation growing locations. The process requires lots of hard work (no substitute for this!) together with relentless focus on quality assurance. The result: exceptional quality specialty coffees of unique character and origin.
Direct to Consumer Connection
Secondly, we build direct connections through to lovers of specialty quality by carefully roasting our own coffee and making it directly available for online order to households in Australia.
Vertical integration allows us achieve savings which we can pass on through making our coffee more affordable. Equally importantly, it allows you the opportunity to purchase coffee in a way that maximises return to farmers. It’s a win - win strategy.
Re-Investment in the Farmer
The third element of our solution is to commit 10% of every purchase to reinvesting in farmers, in their lands and their production practices.
This re-investment is targeted at supporting farmers to restore the health and productivity of their coffee plantations using regenerative farming practices.
Our measure of success is how effectively we can support farmers to achieve strong stable livelihoods for both current and future generations.