amount of cup quality from the better-regarded and less strong type. Furthermore, creating a unique blend that can remain amongst the harsher conditions of Timor, and yet retain properties of coffee quality “among the best in the world”. Timorese coffee producers maintain their usage of processing coffee from cherry on the bush to parchment. According to DAI statistics in 2002, 75% of coffee was processed in Timor Leste using this method, where only hours after being picked, the cherry begins to deteriorate, compared to properly stored parchment which remains a far slower deterioration process. Issues facing the sector International coffee prices The largest single source to numerous rural families remains coffee, and it also represents one of the strongest facets of employment in the nation. Moreover, global fluctuations in coffee prices have created problems for coffee producers in Timor Leste. These problems, however, are to a lesser extent than nations which have made larger capital investment in coffee plantations and subsequent infrastructure. In the past, Timorese coffee producers have had little to no opportunity to capitalise upon higher coffee prices and as such are described as limited investment coffee producers. Additionally, if a global coffee crisis was to arise, forcing competing industries and farmers throughout the world to leave the sector, this would have the ability to put Timorese producers in a position to benefit from global price recovery. Furthermore, the East Timorese coffee sector lacks the appropriate capitalisation or income return to currently be an uprising figure in the global coffee trade. Roads and infrastructure During the Indonesian occupation of Timor Leste, roads and infrastructure were boosted, with the amount of paved road exponentially rising from ‘effectively zero to around 4500km by the end of the Indonesian period’. Forbes Asia's Joe Springer comments on a ‘44-page study on Improving the Lot of the Farmer in Timor-Leste by Sweden's Research Institute of Industrial Economics in 2012 found that infrastructure, outdated mills, and other technical issues were holding back the coffee industry in Timor-Leste. ‘It cites other studies from the World Bank that with investment and updating, gross margins could increase nearly four-fold and returns per labour day could increase in excess of 50%.’ With the nation currently benefiting from the strategically important Bayu-Undan oil and gas field and World Bank, Asian Development Bank investment, infrastructure is rapidly improving. New roadways will promote rural development and grant greater access to coffee