E. Timor coffee farmers have jubilant harvest

DILI (JP): This year's (May-October) harvesting season is bringing joy to East Timor's coffee farmers, but not without worries.

Local farmers now say they are free at last to sell their produce to higher bidders -- free from the fettering monopoly held by PT Denok.

But the coffee growers are still subject to "standard" prices posted by the local Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD), and the caveat is that the actual selling prices are still often way below the posted KUD prices.

Provincial administration officials say they have taken note of the price differences, conceding that East Timor Governor Abilio Soares was reluctant to decree any official prices in order to let market forces operate freely.

The fact remains that for the former Portuguese colony of 650,000 inhabitants, whose local government could expect an indigenous revenue of only Rp 5 billion this fiscal 1994-95 (April to March), coffee is one of the main sources of the people's income.

The province has 250 hectares cultivated with coffee, yielding six tons per hectare annually. Last year it exported 4,000 tons to Asia, Europe and the United States.

Earlier this year Governor Soares issued a decree, SkG 232 of 1994, freeing businessmen with investments in the province to buy local coffee.

Farmers now say, after having been compelled to sell their harvest to PT Denok, a local monopoly, for almost 19 years since East Timor's integration into Indonesia in 1976, they now may pick their buyers. And new buyers are coming from Surabaya, the commercial hub of the eastern part of Indonesia.

Despite denials from PT Denok, the farmers maintained that for 19 years they had been required to sell to PT Denok.

Liquisa and Aileu, farmers in Ermera, told The Jakarta Post: "This year we are unshackled from years of monopoly. Now we are free to sell to any buyer and to bring our coffee from East Timor to other provinces in Indonesia."

Lorenco, 36, a grower in Estasabe exclaimed: "This is an historic year for us!"

Sablina, 23, of Laco told the Post, "We are grateful to the district authorities as we are now free to sell. Previously, we were forbidden to bring coffee, even if it was only five kilograms, to other places without an official permit."

She said during PT Denok's monopolistic days, "we had to sell at low prices. No bargaining."

Monica, 23, and Francisca Goncalves, 25, of Tolo Lelo village in Liquiza district concurred that they had for years been prohibited from bringing their coffee to Dili, the provincial capital, to sell. Now there is no more such ban.

Strangely, Alexs Matindas Sumampow, director of Batara Indra Group to which PT Denok belongs, denied any monopolistic practice by his firm. He said other buyers had always been free to procure coffee from the farmers. The trouble was, he said, no other purchaser had been interested.

The fresh leeway granted the farmers does not, unfortunately, by itself assure sunshine and light for all.

For although the selling prices posted by the government- sponsored cooperatives in the villages are good -- Rp 3,200 per kilogram for first quality, Rp 2,400 for second quality and Rp 2000 for third quality -- actual sales by some farmers, as were noted by the Post over the last few days, were made at Rp 1,500 per kilogram, in some places even as low as Rp 800 and Rp 750.

A government spokesman in Dili, Jose Estavao, told the Post this week the Governor's office has taken note of the "unfair dealings." ((17)