After JICA training Marketing for Coffee Export

Armando L. P. de Araujo
Operation Manager, NGO Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) in Timor-Leste

When we talk about coffee, everyone has their own perspective to explain what coffee is. For me, coffee is an effort and happiness. As an effort, good quality coffee comes from long processes and controls. And as happiness, producing good quality coffee, the farmers can gain good income by selling their coffee at a better price. In the meantime, when consumers drink delicious coffee, they enjoy the coffee not only as a beverage, but the consumers find its surprising taste, fruitiness and sweetness which makes consumers more comfortable and satisfying.

I am one of the nine participants for the training “Marketing for Coffee Export” in Japan from February 17th to March 3rd. Participants were from many entities such as The National Directorate of Coffee and the Industries Plantation and The National Directorate of Foreign Trades, as the representatives of the Timor-Leste government, Coffee Cooperatives and the Association of Timorese Coffee, Coffee Exporters, and other Japanese NGOs which conduct technical assistance for coffee cultivation. I would like to thank and conveying our appreciation as Timorese to JICA for providing the opportunity to improve our professionalism to develop Timor-Leste coffee industry through distributing better knowledge of coffee cultivation, production, marketing, and promotion activities to export abroad, especially to Japan. In addition, we were very pleased with the hospitality of all the Japanese we met during our stay in Kansai, and we also were very comfortable with the facilities provided by JICA Kansai to ensure we stay safe and healthy until we accomplish and return to our beloved country, Timor-Leste.

We were very interested in all the materials and information regarding the situation of the coffee market in Japan, provided by the presenters from coffee companies and agencies. We had the chance to visit a coffee shop “Hiro Coffee” to observe their operation and how they promote imported coffee. Besides that, we also conducted a coffee salon in their place to interact with their customers to introduce Timorese coffee as well. We visited one of the Japan’s biggest coffee company UCC to see their daily activity in developing and researching innovation for coffee beverages. We also visited their coffee museum in Kobe. It is very interesting due to their concept, displaying all of the history and coffee production flows from the farms to the consumers as well as displaying all stuff related to coffee production. UCC is not only buying and selling coffee, UCC has been developing ideas to promote coffee tourism in Japan successfully.

On February 24th, we got a chance to learn about Japan's centuries of history, learning and visiting some iconic tourist places such as Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine representing Japanese beliefs, also had an experience of a tea ceremony with very delighting services.

The most important lesson on this day was the words from the Japanese motivator, Mr Ichizo Kobayashi, the ex-minister, and ex-CEO of the Hankyu group. After Japan was destroyed by the Second World War, he said that “Japan was completely devastated by war, we lost our property, people - but we have our history and an inherent culture that we should take pride in. We should build our new country based on that.”. From his statement, if I connect it to the situation in Timor-Leste, especially for coffee cultivation nowadays, I believe that it has meaning deeply. The coffee trees in Timor-Leste were brought by the Portuguese and forced Timorese to grow in the mountains during the colonization time. The Timor-hybrid, a variety of coffee that was born accidentally in Timor-Leste, contributing globally to fight against the coffee leaf rust disease with its resistance. Timor-Leste has gained independence as a nation. As a Timorese, I should take pride in cultivating and conserving our coffee as a good opportunity to gain income by producing high-quality coffee. At the same time, I would like to promote Timor-Leste with its untouched nature, hospitality, and culture through coffee marketing abroad.

After we finished the 10 days training course, JICA awarded all the participants with the accomplishment certificates as a symbol of our participation in this capacity building. I was proud of being part of the course which was useful for my career for developing the coffee sector currently I work for. There were many things I learnt other than coffee export during my stay in Kansai, such as discipline, perseverance, responsibility, punctuality, and obedience of Japanese. I believe that if these things will be adapted properly by each Timorese, Timor-Leste will succeed such as Japan in each sector in the future.