At the heart of the WCR strategy is an emphasis on genetic improvement to make the kind of rapid gains in productivity and quality needed to sustain and grow the supply chain. As with all crop species, the most efficient and economical way to increase productivity and quality at the level of the producer is through variety development and efficient distribution. In coffee, this opportunity is greatly magnified because coffee is an ‘orphan’ crop and very little breeding or genetics work has been conducted on it relative to its economic importance and especially when compared to all other major world crop species. In fact, coffee is one of the few major crop species with no seed industry and because of that, there is a huge potential to rapidly improve coffee with proven technologies currently applied and proven in other crops and seed industries. Furthermore, world germplasm collections and wild populations of Arabica coffee have been underutilized and the cultivated Arabica genetic base is severely constricted thus impeding past improvement efforts but increasing today’s opportunity. For all these reasons, the WCR will pursue genetic improvement as its strategic foundation to deliver coffee production and quality returns on research investment in the short, medium and long terms.