Robusta breeding update: 1,000 clones advancing
Milestone marks a shift from planning to plants
Key takeaways
- 1,000 clones selected. WCR’s breeders narrowed nearly 5,700 candidate seedlings down to a final population of 1,000 that will carry WCR's robusta breeding program forward.
- Propagation underway. WCR’s trusted nursery partner is multiplying the trees for distribution to participating partner countries.
- Trials begin 2027. Seven countries participating in the Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network will receive trees in early 2027 for coordinated field testing.
Two years after breeders made the first controlled crosses for World Coffee Research's (WCR) robusta breeding program, a subset of 1,000 clones have been selected as the founding population and are now being multiplied for distribution to national breeding partners on three continents.
The milestone marks a shift from planning to plants. The genetic variation that will define the next generation of Coffea canephora (aka robusta) varieties has been created and narrowed to its best candidates. The focus now is to produce enough identical copies (called “clones”) of each selected founder to plant in coordinated robusta field trials across the Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network.
Baby robusta seedlings grown from a cross made in 2024.
From 5,700 seedlings to 1,000 finalists
The path to this milestone began in April 2024, when WCR's breeding team made its first crosses using unique robusta parent material. By March 2025, seeds from these crosses, nearly 5,700 in total, were on their way to a commercial propagator.
After genotyping all 5,700 seedlings, breeders narrowed the population to 1,000 plants based on genetic diversity, which will form the founding population for WCR's robusta breeding and will be distributed to the following partners in the Innovea network: Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Together, these countries produce 64% of the world’s robusta supply.
The WCR team carefully genotyped each individual plant, collecting information to inform the selection of the final 1,000 clones to become the founding breeding population. Verifying each plant's genetic identity before shipment is part of what allows partner countries to trust the materials they receive.
Propagation underway
With selection complete, the work has shifted from choosing candidates to multiplying them. Each of the 1000 plants is propagated by taking many small cuttings to multiply them up to the numbers we need for supplying to network partners. Traceability and quality control is critical to ensure the identity of every plant and cutting is maintained right throughout the one to two year process. The WCR team holds regular check-ins and site visits with the propagator to oversee progress and at critical points takes samples to send for genotyping and troubleshooting for quality control and troubleshooting any problems that may arise. This ensures that each plant matches its intended genetic identity before it ever leaves the nursery.
Traceability and quality control is critical to ensure the identity of every plant and cutting is maintained right throughout the one to two year process.
What's next: from nursery to farmers' fields
Starting in January 2027, WCR will begin shipping rooted clones and in-vitro plantlets to Ghana, India, Indonesia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Vietnam as well as our own site in El Salvador. Because most countries rigorously control the importation of live plants, WCR is working closely with each partner to send test shipments this fall and winter to work out kinks in the process and ensure that plants arrive alive and healthy.
Each country will receive multiple copies of the full set of 1,000 selections, for planting in coordinated trials across the Innovea Network. At each trial site, national research partners will evaluate the same candidates against their own growing conditions, generating the data needed to identify which clones perform best, and where.