Category Archives: #WCRMembers

In the Press: The Wall Street Journal Features #WCRGermplasm Expedition in South Sudan

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The Wall Street Journal featured a story by Miguel Bustillo and Solomon Moore on the recent World Coffee Research Germplasm expedition to South Sudan. Read the following excerpt from the story and follow the link at the end to the read full article on the WSJ website. Read More →

Dunn Bros Coffee Joins World Coffee Research

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World Coffee Research is proud to announce that Dunn Bros Coffee has become on of our newest members. Dunn Bros joins a growing list of coffee industry leaders to support research and development that will increase supplies of quality coffee, benefitting producers and consumers. Read More →

In the Press: Wild Arabica species, The genetic key to a sustainable coffee industry

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A World Coffee Research expedition to South Sudan turned into a rescue mission for wild Arabica, with evidence that climate change may see these forests disappear in our lifetime. A.S. Thomas’s 1942 entry into the Empire Journal of Experimental Agriculture is a reminder of times gone by. In an account of his exploration of the Boma Plateau, Sudan, to search for wild Arabica (Coffea arabica), Thomas refers to neighbouring “Abyssinia”, the historical name that included Ethiopia, as well as the then colonial “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan”. Read More →

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Joins WCR

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World Coffee Research (WCR), announces that they are the recipient of a five-year, $2.5 million grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers. WCR is the non-profit, collaborative research and development program of the global coffee industry and is managed by the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of the Texas A&M University System. The grant will help support WCR’s mission to sustainably grow the Arabica coffee supply chain and improve coffee farmer livelihoods through collaborative agricultural research and development. World Coffee Research will conduct research projects with partners around the world to protect and improve coffee productivity against the effects of climate change and other threats. Read More →

Emma Bladyka Writes About South Sudan WCR Expedition

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It was the tail end of the dry season in South Sudan. Our base camp, located in the small village of Jonglei, was dusty and despite being at 1100 meters elevation, was well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I had just hiked up all 1100 of these meters, much of which were unshaded, with only the water I could carry. Small huts made of mud and straw sat in the shade of large, broad leaved trees. There was a loud thump next to me and when I looked down I discovered a blushing yellow-green mango. The village was full of mango trees (or maybe, the mango grove was full of village). Read More →

WCR Team Finds Wild Arabica Coffee in South Sudanese Forest

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This past April, a team of experts representing World Coffee Research traveled to the Boma Plateau in South Sudan on a germplasm collection expedition through the forest. The plateau sits across a valley from Ethiopia, considered the origin of the Arabica coffee species. Traveling through the forest, the World Coffee Research team was on a mission to find and collect wild Arabica coffee. The last time a researcher had done a similar trip was back in the 1940s when botanist Dr. A.S. Thomas recorded his observations of a much different Boma forest than what the WCR team found— a forest that was yet unscathed by a changing global climate where healthy Arabica coffee trees grew wild. Read More →

SCAA Chronicle: Sustainability is Dead. Long Live Sustainability! by Peter Giuliano

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“I was a young coffee person when the concept of sustainability became big news in coffee. In those days—the roaring ’90s of coffee—the idea of thinking in the long-term about agriculture and about industry seemed fresh, exciting and different. The concept of acting in the interest of the long haul, and looking at the bigger picture of economic interdependence and environmental impact was downright revolutionary. The organic agricultural movement—binding together farmers who treated their farm like an ecosystem and refused to damage its soil with synthetic agrochemicals—spread to coffee farmers, and organic coffees began to be widely available.” Read More →

Specialty Coffee Association of Japan Joins WCR

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World Coffee Research is proud to announce that the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ) has joined our list of Founding Members. The SCAJ, which was founded in April 2003, aims to “spread the enjoyment and awareness of Japanese coffee culture and delicious coffee by liaising with like-minded organizations around the world.” The SCAJ says their goal is to foster the growth of the global coffee market, including coffee-producing countries, while prioritizing the healthy development of the coffee industry in Japan. Read More →