News and knowledge

In 2020, despite a year of enormous challenge and uncertainty, 217 coffee companies—representing one-fifth of the global coffee market share—continued their support for collaborative science and innovation to secure a sustainable future for coffee. Read more about what we do, and the results of our ongoing research, in our 2020 Annual Report.

There is growing awareness that coffee farmers worldwide struggle to access high quality plants. A set of three newly completed guides provides seed and nursery producers with knowledge to support their professionalization. The guides include newly revised technical manuals and a brand-new guide to profitable business management, which together support nurseries to succeed financially as well as to produce high quality plants. The guides can be accessed freely online at worldcoffeeresearch.org/guias and are available in both English and Spanish.

Indonesian coffee farmers and professionals interested in using agroforestry to support climate resilience have a new tool at their disposal: The Shade Catalog. Available in both English and Bahasa, the Catalog helps farmers select shade trees that are good for coffee, support and diversify household incomes and provide benefits to wildlife and ecosystem services. The Shade Catalog is available in a mobile-friendly online format and free download at shadecoffee.org.

WCR has unveiled its new strategy for the next five years, which prioritizes supporting origin diversity in the face of the climate crisis through the acceleration of innovations in coffee agriculture.

Coffee has been grown in Australia since the 1800s, though never in a commercial capacity. But the country is capable of producing specialty coffee, and is now participating in research trials with WCR.