World Coffee Research

30/09/2020

World Coffee Research’s mission is to grow, protect and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it. WCR drives continual scientific innovation through applied agricultural research in genetics and agronomy to produce climate-smart, profitable technologies for farmers to sustain global demands for coffee. 

WCR drives a farmer-focused agricultural research and development agenda that advances three interconnected objectives: (1) enhancing the profitability of climate-resilient coffee production to support farmer economic sustainability; (2) improving the quality potential of coffee trees to ensure a diverse range of qualities is available to the market (from commercial to premium to specialty, encompassing both arabica and robusta); (3) mitigating supply chain risk to suppliers and roasters by enhancing the competitiveness of strategically selected countries from the Americas, East Africa and Asia.

Donors/Partners

World Coffee Research works in collaboration with a global network of coffee research institutions that includes national coffee research institutes, universities, consortia, public agencies, and laboratories, including private company research departments. WCR’s work is supported by over 200 member companies from around the world, which provide vital funding and help drive the research agenda.  These include Caravela, Dunkin’, illycaffè, Intelligentsia Coffee, JDE, JM Smuckers, Keurig Dr. Pepper, KEY Coffee, La Marzocco, Lavazza, Mercon, JDE Peets, PROBAT, Starbucks, Taylors of Harrogate, and many more. A full list of WCR members and partners is available at https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/about.

Key activities

World Coffee Research works collaboratively to develop agricultural technologies that can increase productivity, farmer profitability, and quality. WCR acts as a bridge between industry market demand and national research programs to bring tools and approaches with proven track records in other crops to accelerate progress in coffee research. WCR addresses significant bottlenecks in agricultural innovation—for example, focusing not just on modernizing global coffee breeding approaches, but also on advocacy and strategic engagement to ensure that countries have the infrastructure needed to get new varieties into the hands of farmers.  Key activities include regional breeding hubs; farmer field trials; nursery and seed sector development; and tool and knowledge-product generation.

Signature projects/tools

Priority Countries and corresponding areas of activities

Globally and regionally, WCR partners with advanced research institutes from anywhere in the world to address shared, relevant, upstream challenges, and strengthens global communities of practice, including via regional breeding hubs. WCR also works more deeply within select, strategic geographies to enhance the competitiveness of their coffee sectors through agricultural R&D upgrades. Engagement in focus countries is oriented around agricultural research (e.g., breeding, agronomy), along with nursery sector development. Research results may “feed” other pathways, such as technical assistance and access to inputs.

Uganda: Climate – Renovation – Producer country policy

Ethiopia: Climate – Renovation – Producer country policy

Peru: Climate – Renovation – Producer country policy

Indonesia: Climate – Renovation – Producer country policy

Honduras: Climate – Renovation – Producer country policy