accounts for 90 percent of the country's non-oil exports, while 46 percent of East Timorese households rely solely on coffee for their income. The crop has grown in the country for centuries. It accounted for half of the country's trade when it was a Portuguese colony in the late 1800s, but during 24 years of Indonesian occupation the bumper business was neglected when the military took over – prices fluctuated and many coffee plantations were battlefields so the quality of beans worsened. By the war's end, agricultural experts estimated two generation's worth of farming knowledge was lost and some plantations were abandoned. But because the trees got little attention the pesticide and fertiliser-free groves are popular for organic coffee lovers. Today, the coffee is known as the golden prince of East Timor agriculture - worth $10 million a year, 46,000 coffee farms employ one-fifth of East Timor's population but it is a major battle to encourage farmers to improve the quality of East Timor's agriculture. References East Timorese culture East Timor