Timor-Leste - Remagoa

Remagoa’s isolated location means that selling coffee has historically been a monumental effort. Prior to working with Karst, farmers would harvest their cherries daily and then make the 2km hike through dense forests where they would wait at the side of the road for the first passing truck who would often only buy at the lowest commercial price (at that time $0.32c per kilo). So, in 2022 when Karst were approached by Maritu de Deus on behalf of his father-in-law Fernando (now the lead farmer of Remagoa) who was enquiring about our parchment buying model, Karst jumped at the opportunity to work together.

The daily hike to the nearest road waiting for commercial buyers was eradicated. With a small financial investment from Karst for the provision of materials, alongside the delivery of training sessions in the processing of speciality parchment, the community of Remagoa is now thriving. 3 years into this partnership, trust and confidence has been established between Karst and this group of 8 dedicated coffee farmers.

It is still the case that parchment needs to be collected on horseback and transported through the forest for collection at the end of the harvest but at least this now only takes place once a year