World Coffee Research releases 2025 annual report
Newly released 2025 annual report provides highlights from the past year, updates on major program areas
At a glance
To reflect on this year’s progress and celebrate what’s to come for the future of coffee, access the annual report below.
In 2025, World Coffee Research (WCR), with investment from 200+ member companies from 30 countries and in collaboration with its global partners, made tremendous progress toward the development and distribution of tomorrow’s climate-resilient coffee varieties.
"I am proud that our members and partners built something unprecedented when they created World Coffee Research—a global, collaborative organization that is creating the genetic infrastructure of our $200+ billion industry," said CEO Dr. Jennifer "Vern" Long. “Creating better plants changes more than the farm. It creates the conditions for stronger livelihoods, stronger supply, and new opportunities across coffee.”
The 2025 annual report includes updates on WCR’s four major program areas—breeding, trials, nursery, and global leadership—with highlights from the progress the organization achieved over the past year.
2025 global highlights
This year, WCR realized the:
- Expansion of the Innovea Global Breeding Network to include both arabica and robusta breeding, adding new national partners of Vietnam and Ghana to total 11 countries participating in the network which produce >40% of the world’s coffee supply.
- Recognition of the Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network as a TIME Best Invention of 2025, underscoring its role in reshaping the future of coffee.
- Development of tools to make breeding faster, better, and cheaper in partnership with Cenicafe and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop low-cost genetic markers for Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR), the world’s most devastating coffee disease.
- Upgrading of systems for delivering resilient, high-quality and healthy arabica and robusta varieties to farmers in Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, and Uganda by establishing new seed sources, strengthening existing ones, training nurseries, and testing infrastructure.
- The 10-year anniversary of the International Multilocation Variety Trial which unites researchers across more than a dozen countries to study the performance of 31 existing arabica varieties and in 2025 produced a groundbreaking study showing that coffee leaf rust resistance depends on both genetics and the environment.
- Catalyzed investment in coffee agricultural research & development through coordinated advocacy with U.S. member companies, the mobilization of global coalitions to invest in the strengthening of production systems in origin countries, and the organization of initiatives between governments and other research institutes to support training on the ground.
The WCR team is deeply appreciative of the opportunities it has had this year to accomplish the work outlined above, and the organization looks forward to the transformative change that 2026 will bring.
"In the coming years, WCR will explore what it takes to scale up and deploy new varieties to farmers’ fields,” said Dr. Long. “We will continue innovating. We are excited to collaborate further with our members and partners as we explore what’s possible. Better plants are coming. We’ll be ready."
The 2025 annual report is available in English and Spanish. A Japanese translation will be available in the coming weeks.