2025 in review: annual update from CEO Vern Long

HIGHLIGHTS

• Strong partnerships: World Coffee Research (WCR)'s success in 2025 is thanks to sustained member investment and strong partnerships with national coffee institutes globally.
• Accelerating innovation: WCR successfully accelerated the delivery of climate-resilient, high-performing coffee varieties to farmers.
• Mitigating risk: WCR is continuing to lead a scientific journey with partners to innovate, mitigate risks, and secure a stable future for the coffee industry.

2025 was a pivotal year for World Coffee Research (WCR). Sustained investment from over 200 companies in 30 countries helped us deepen powerful partnerships with national coffee institutes and accelerate our commitment to variety development. Together with its members and partners, WCR successfully strengthened pathways to move climate-resilient, high-performing trees into farmers’ fields faster than ever. This work could not be more essential for securing the long-term stability of diverse, global coffee supplies against the threat of accelerating climate change.

While the coffee industry faces tremendous challenges, it is precisely in this space where disruptive innovation can emerge. With our partners across the globe, we’ve embarked on an unparalleled scientific journey to ensure a secure future for coffee.

Members and partners of the WCR community are supporting a movement that is mitigating significant risk for our industry and cultivating a sense of hope for everyone across the coffee sector.

Below, find key achievements from 2025:

• Increasing accessibility to existing high-performing varieties in countries like Peru where WCR installed 10 new arabica seed lots of IPR 107 and Paraneima in collaboration with 8 local partner organizations. These varieties were identified as top performers under local conditions in WCR’s International Multilocation Variety Trial which has been ongoing since 2015. In Uganda, WCR has similarly installed 15 mother gardens and nurseries of disease resilient robusta varieties to increase supplies accessible to farmers through our partnership with the national coffee institute NaCORI.
• Beginning arabica field trials and realizing the first harvest under the Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network, which was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025, is the most ambitious and globally coordinated breeding program in history that will produce the high-performing, high-quality varieties needed to sustain the coffee sector for generations to come.
• Launching a robusta breeding program in the Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network, adding Vietnam and Ghana as national collaborators and expanding partnerships to 11 countries that together produce 40% of the world’s coffee supply. The robusta program will parallel the arabica program, with the goal of creating varieties that are more resilient while supporting origin diversity.
• Driving unprecedented global collaboration of scientists, governments, and coffee companies to ensure high-quality coffee continues to thrive in origins across the world for generations to come. Collaboration is the engine that powers WCR’s impact, such as this study published this year WCR brought together researchers from 15 countries at 23 sites across the world to provide crucial insights into how 29 arabica varieties respond to leaf rust in different growing conditions, getting the industry one step closer to developing resilient trees needed to sustain production.

As we head into the new year, World Coffee Research thanks its members and partners across the globe for their continued collaboration and commitment to the future of coffee.