Featured Business - Carpintaria Citra Mandiri, Ermera

On 19 November 2009 PDT's Business Verification Team discovered a new business named Carpintaria Citra Mandiri (Profile found here) in Ermera district.  Recently established this business owned by Ms. Leonica Trindade and makes a range of furniture products.

Baptista Da Silva of PDT takes information from Ms. Trindade, owner of Carpintaria Citra Mandiri

An Indonesian craftsman assiting in training Timorese staff. 

Interestingly this business has started a new development program in partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Development, providing carpentry training to local youths interested in the trade. The Ministry has allocated Ms. Leoncia support funds to build a training facility which upon its completion will provide a training ground for their 10 current apprentices. Currently, in addition to the trainees, the enterprise employs 5 national workers, one of which is female, and 5 international males.

PDT Micromatchmaking Team - Home Video

  Thanks to Ilidio Ximenes, Agy Soares and the M3 team

$18,750 of Viqueque Soybeans

In September 2009  PDT's Micromatchmaking (M3) Team in Viqueque District in eastern Timor-Leste were influential in assisting a local farmer make a large business transaction for much of his soybean crop.

PDT M3 staff Vasco M Ferreira and Antonio do Rosario assisted Mr. Alcino Soares in locating a buyer named Venancio Sequeira for his soybeans.  After making the connection between buyer and supplier 25 tonnes of soybeans worth $18,750 were purchased in Luka Viqueque for sale in Dili.  Mr. Sequeira is a middle man, buying from farmers and selling to wholesalers in Dili.  Mr. Sequeira is exploring the development of a customer base in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Viqueque Snake Fruit - Salak Midar Teb-Tebes

Interested in buying some Snake Fruit fruit?

This fruit, often known by its Indonesian name Salak, comes in both sour and sweet varieties. The Business Verification and Micro Matchmaking Teams have located the Bairo Zalacca business in Viqueque which sells Salak in addition to a range of seedlings and other agricultural products.

According to PDT staff in the field, this Salak is of the sweet variety.  Contact Bairo Zalacca or PDT at timor-leste[at]pdtglobal.org for more details.

Musing on New Funding

PDT's Edward Rees is tired after a 1 week long, but very necessary, and valuable, AusAID Evaluation.

Timorese Cattle - a domestic product for an international market.

Peace Dividend Trust's (PDT) Micro Matchmaking (M3) rural business development and facilitation team has been working on facilitating the sale of Timorese cattle to Indonesian buyers for nearly two years.  This is a business activity which has a long history over the past decades as Indonesian appetites for "beef on the hoof" have expanded with its population growth.  However recent events have broken down communication links both inside and outside the country.  PDT is working hard to restore these links and promote business across the rural districts of Timor-Leste.  An increase in business correlates to job creation and wealth generation.

Since 2008 PDT has been assisting the owner of Suai based RAFLIMA (Tafara) Cattle, Mr. Rosito Manek, to source cattle for an Atambua (West Timor, Indonesia) based buyer  (Alowisius Lay, owner of UD Pratama in Atambua).  PDT has also been assisting in sourcing cattle from Mr. Casmiro Fernando, a Bobonaro supplier.  To view RAFLIMA's BuildingMarkets.org profile click here.

PDT Cova Lima has facilitated the sale of 680 head of cattle from local ranchers to Mr. Manek with an estimated value of $185,150. Mr. Manek then exports the cattle to UD Pratama in Indonesia. This month (November 2009), Mr. Manek has 300 more cows available to sell to Atambua, but is awaiting a new license to export from the government of Timor-Leste.

Meanwhile PDT Bobonaro has facilitated the sale of 350 head of cattle from local ranchers to Mr. Fernando with an estimated value of $70,955. Mr. Fernando then exports the cattle to UD Pratama in Atambua.  See below for Bobonaro cattle ready for sale.

Mr. Manek and Mr. Fernando were already exporting cows to Atambua but wanted to export on a larger scale. PDT M3 teams in Covalima and Bobonaro assisted the two middlemen in locating and purchasing cattle across their respective districts, resulting in a marked increase in sales and a cash injection into rural Timor-Leste.

RAFLIMA has a website as well - 

For more information contact Ilidio da Costa Ximenes via iximenes[at]pdtglobal.org or timor-leste[at]pdtglobal.org

PDT Micro Matching activities are funded by AusAID and Eni.

Timor Business

Slick new page for Timor-Leste Business Overview.