Passenger x World Coffee Research

It was with this in mind that, earlier this year, Passenger became an annual donor member of the non-profit organization World Coffee Research (WCR). Through innovative scientific research and field studies in cooperation with leading agricultural research institutions throughout the world, WCR is working to improve the coffee supply chain and decrease risk for coffee producers while improving the sustainability of coffee production. Most central to WCR’s work is the pursuit of practical solutions for producers to combat the effects of climate change and bolster their ability to reliably produce the quality and quantity of coffee that supports a viable business as a coffee producer. The importance and urgency of this work cannot be overstated. For many of us, the destructive effects of climate change on the global supply of arabica coffee will be felt within our lifetimes, with studies done by WCR predicting a reduction of as much as half of the land currently suitable for arabica coffee production by 2050¹. By supporting WCR’s efforts, we are excited to join a growing number of roasting companies that are helping fund the creation of new tools and strategies necessary for producers to face long-standing and emerging challenges in order to protect the future of coffee.

World Coffee Research: Strategy

There are a large number of projects and strategies that make up WCR’s work, and The World Coffee Research website is an excellent resource to explore the full breadth and depth of these efforts. Among the projects most exciting to us at Passenger, however, are those related to the creation and trial of new coffee varieties.

Breeding New Climate Resilient Coffee Varieties

Investment and innovation in the research and development of coffee varieties have historically lagged behind that of other crops more ubiquitous to the global north. For example, there are currently over five thousand varieties of apples cataloged by the UPOV² plant variety database, compared to just over 100 for arabica species coffee. The wealth of apple varieties currently in existence is by design, and is a reflection of intentional investment in the research and development of new and unique apple varieties in order to bolster the apple-growing industry. Similarly, we could point to corn yields in the US, which have grown in part due to breeding efforts from around 25 bushels per acre a century ago to over 170 bushels per acre today. Having a wealth of varieties with different traits related to yield outcomes, disease resistance, quality potential, drought tolerance, and more, means that a producer has a larger toolkit to respond to any number of challenges at the farm level. As climate change only increases the prevalence of common issues related to coffee plant diseases and detrimental weather events, it’s more apparent than ever that producers throughout the coffee-growing world need a bigger toolkit, and WCR is determined to help make that a reality. Most recently, this manifested in the creation and trial of a new group of ‘F1’ hybrid varieties created by WCR that could “translate into everything from higher yields, to wider climate adaptability, to resilience in the face of stresses like disease (e.g., coffee rust), frost, or drought [as well as a] reduced time from breeding to commercial release compared with traditional pure line varieties (10-20 years vs. 25-30 for pure line varieties)”³. These new varieties are now undergoing pre-commercial testing at the farm level, and are an excellent example of one of WCR’s many efforts to leverage scientific research in plant breeding to “create new varieties to ensure a flourishing and sustainable future for farmers, consumers, and businesses.” Discovering new and existing varieties that are best adapted for specific climates also means a net reduction in the carbon footprint required to grow coffee, as fewer inputs are required to achieve desirable yield and quality outcomes. WCR was also the force behind founding the Innovea Global Arabica Breeding Network, which uses a “globally coordinated approach” to bring breeding efforts from around the world together, allowing participating producing countries to share access to tools and research in order to collaboratively “accelerate the pace of coffee genetic improvement.”

Multi Location Variety Trials

In addition to having access to a wider range of varieties designed to respond to a changing global climate, it’s also critical to understand how a given variety will respond to any number of the different microclimates that make up the coffee-growing regions of the world. It’s not necessarily the case that a variety that thrives in the growing conditions of El Salvador in South America, will also thrive if it’s grown in Kenya in Africa. This challenge is what led WCR to create a first-of-its-kind international multi-location variety trial, designed to generate “critical knowledge for coffee producers and agronomists about how varieties respond to different soil and climatic conditions” at their farms. The trials used fifty thousand seedlings, representing 31 known high-performing coffee varieties from around the world, and planted them for observation at 29 test plots across 18 different countries. Not only will these trials provide new insight for farmers as to what varieties work best in their given growing conditions, they will also help “identify key traits that have allowed different varieties to adapt to different environmental conditions, [laying] the groundwork for major advances in coffee breeding, climate adaptation strategies, and future research"⁴.

Looking ahead

On International Coffee Day, Tuesday, October 1st, Passenger will be hosting a fundraiser tied to coffee sales both online and at our retail locations, designed to not only increase our contributions and impact with WCR, but also to introduce our customers to who WCR is and how our customers support their important work by trusting Passenger to be their source for exceptional coffee and tea. In addition to these fundraising efforts, our hope is that this is one small way we can continue to foster a connection between our customers and the producers behind their coffee. In November, Passenger’s Director of Coffee, Russ Durfee, will be joining WCR on a visit to Costa Rica to explore their collaborative efforts with the Tropical Agricultural Research Center, CATIE, as well as their research farm at Aquiares Estate. Beyond that, we hope to continue to collaborate with WCR at future industry events and make ourselves available to join our peers in the industry in providing feedback related to WCR’s ongoing variety trials.

1. Bunn, C., Läderach, P., Jimenez, J.G.P., Montagnon, C. and Schilling, T. (2015). World Coffee Research | Climate change: Pinpointing the world’s most…. [online] World Coffee Research.
2. UPOV is the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
3. World Coffee Research (n.d.). World Coffee Research | F1 Hybrid Trials. [online] World Coffee Research. Available at: https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/programs/next-generation-f1-hybrid-varieties
4. World Coffee Research (2023). International Multilocation Variety Trial. [online] Available at: file:///Users/russdurfee/Downloads/How-it-works-IMLVT-2023-update.pdf