Coffee industry unites to raise $16 million for growing programs

World Coffee Research (WCR) has announced that the global industry made a renewed US$10 million (AU$16.12 million) commitment to its worldwide coffee breeding and seed sector strengthening programs.

WCR’s more than 190 member companies in 29 countries are calling on governments to join the industry in agricultural research and development (R&D) investment for coffee to enhance productivity and prosperity for farmers, reduce the environmental footprint of coffee agriculture, and sustain choice for consumers.

In December 2024, coffee commodity prices reached 50-year highs due to production challenges, which WCR says reflects an urgent need for new technologies and innovations that help farmers tackle the combined challenges of extreme weather, pests, and disease.

WCR has calculated that agricultural R&D for coffee is underfunded by US$452 million (AU$727 million) each year. To address this, multi-year commitments from WCR’s member companies have helped launch two global coffee breeding networks for Arabica and Robusta that together include the participation and collaboration of 11 producing countries, which export 43 per cent of the world’s coffee.

In Australia, the trial is led by a team at Southern Cross University in New South Wales in collaboration with the Australian Grown Coffee Association (AGCA), with trial sites in Alstonville, New South Wales, and the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland.

According to WCR, these networks are creating the next generation of coffee varieties designed to ensure stable supplies from diverse origins and are on track to deliver 100 improved Arabica varieties by 2030, with Robusta to follow.

In 2024, there has been a rising tide of public commitments in support of coffee R&D and other investments to enhance agricultural productivity in coffee and support smallholder livelihoods, this includes United States Agency for International Development (USAID) committing US$5.4 million (AU$8.61 million) to a strategic partnership between Cornell University and WCR to develop tools to enhance the effectiveness, speed, and impact of coffee breeding efforts.

Also in 2024, German development agency GIZ committed €1.2 million (AU$1.99 million) to strengthen the capacity of the Ethiopian national coffee breeding program and two other donor governments are expected to join the effort.

In 2025, WCR’s member companies renewed their commitments to WCR, together pledging more than US$10 million (AU$16.12 million)* to the organisation through 2027. Of these, 10 member companies made three-year commitments: Coffein Compagnie, Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligentsia Coffee, JDE Peet’s, The J.M. Smucker Co., Keurig Dr Pepper, Starbucks Coffee, Sucafina Group, Taylors of Harrogate, and Tchibo.

*A small component of this total is contingent on green coffee volumes and is calculated with historical averages, which may result in fluctuations to future revenue.