About
Admit it, when you read ‘Timor-Leste’ on our homepage, you did a quick Google search.
Don’t worry…although Dili, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is only about 700km northwest of Darwin – far closer than any Australian city – for many people it remains only vaguely at the edge of our minds as a place of war and political violence.
For Shannon French, one of Lospalos’ founders, however, Timor holds a personal connection. As a former soldier in the Australian Army, he served in the ISF forces which restored security in Timor-Leste following the 1999 post-independence ballot violence and protected the UN mission in 2012.
During his time there Shannon developed an emotional connection to the country and its people,
returning to set up Wild Timor Coffee, a fair-trade coffee business that supplies cafes in Melbourne. Through the Wild Timor cafes, Shannon has worked to promote Timorese food, culture and coffee and successfully invested profits back into supporting community initiatives such as water
projects, schools and a birthing centre.
Noticing the prolific coconut palm plantations in Timor, Shannon identified that coconut oil could potentially have similar success to Wild Timor’s coffee as an export product due to the increasing global demand. In 2018, he personally invested and built the first coconut oil factory in Souro Village, Lospalos, which currently employs 40 people.
Milestones
In our first two years of operation, we’ve been busy!
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Feb 2018
Shannon and Steven scouted and secured a suitable site for a prototype factory and developed a relationship with Souro Village and the Cabral family
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April - May 2018
The factory is built in Lospalos and the DME press is installed
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June 2018
Oil samples are produced with the DME press to test the market
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Aug 2018
Timorese Company, Losco SS, LDA, is registered
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Sept 2018
Six women are hired and trained and Lospalos begins production of VCO
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Nov 2018
Lospalos oil is stocked at Pateo supermarket in Dili, Timor-Leste
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Jan 2019
A Pozible crowdfunding campaign is completed raising AU$35000 to fund VCO export and widen our support network
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May 2019
The first large-scale VCO export to Australia arrives
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July 2019
Australian Company, Losco Aus Pty Ltd is registered
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Aug 2019
Lospalos receives a USD$50,000 development grant from Australian Aid via the Market Development Facility to upscale production and grow an export focused business
Lospalos’ online store is opened -
Sept 2019
The factory expansion funded by MDF is completed and an additional six women are hired and trained to produce VCO
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11 October 2019
Lospalos Coconut Oil Factory is officially opened by The President of Timor-Leste, Dr. Francisco Guterres, and Australian Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Peter Roberts
