The coffee industry of Timor Leste (East Timor) is the largest non-oil export. Since the introduction of coffee by the Portuguese in the 1800s, the industry contributes a sizeable portion of the country's employment and investment and is a major source of income for rural communities. The industry is vulnerable to global coffee price fluctuation, deficient infrastructure, and lack of capital. Background Considered one of its primary industries, the coffee industry of Timor Leste (East Timor) is its chief export commodity. From the early sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, many different groups have competed for political control of Timor Leste, including indigenous groups, the Dutch and the Portuguese. 1749 saw the division of Western Timor and Eastern Timor, where the Dutch occupied the West and the Portuguese occupied the East until the cessation of the colonial era. Accounting for $26.4M of Timor Leste's total exports in 2017, or 24% of its $108M total exports, the Portuguese's introduction of coffee production and cultivation to Timor Leste in the early nineteenth century has progressed the nation's growth and development. Coffee producers in Timor Leste To most who reside in Timor Leste, coffee production remains a source of supplementary income, with estimates from 2003 noting that around 200,000 people rely on coffee production and cultivation as their primary source of income. Timor Leste's coffee production is done in a multitude of different areas, including the districts of Manufahi, Ainaro, and Liquica, who all produce a large amount, along with the districts of Aileu and Bobonaro. However, production of Timor Leste's coffee is particularly concentrated in the district of Ermera, where, according to World Bank, almost ½ of the nation's coffee is produced. The coffee industry of Timor Leste is that “coffee production in East Timor is based on relatively unmanaged plantations, with bean- gathering and processing by villagers, and scant attention paid to cleaning/weeding, pruning, pest and disease management or planting of new trees,” according to the Timor Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Coffee production in Timor Leste is considered to be a process where there is a limited effort to tend to coffee bushes, whereby an emphasis is placed on land clearing around bushes to make way for future harvest. Through kin and hired help, producers supplement their work during the harvest time to maximize the efficiency of production. Of the coffee-producing families, the average size has 6 members, where