,

World Coffee Research

World Coffee Research

Red Cedar Coffee Co. has been a proud supporter of World Coffee Research for years. We feel that it is important to support coffee producers who are the foundation of our industry and who work hard to provide a product that enriches our lives.

World Coffee Research (WCR) was founded in 2012 when Central and South America were experiencing an epidemic of coffee rust (“la roya”), which eventually put 1.7 million people out of work.

Part of the challenge of growing coffee is that across all varieties there’s very little genetic diversity. In addition, relatively few research dollars go to studying coffee which is why coffee is sometimes referred to as an “orphan crop.”

Some coffee producing countries have research facilities where coffee producers can contact for help. Other coffee producing countries do not have these research facilities. Typically, the information gained from these research institutions are not shared with other country’s research institutions. 

This is where World Coffee Research can help. They work with all coffee research institutions to help share their research worldwide.

World Coffee Research is currently conducting an international multilocational variety trial to understand coffee “genetics x environment’ interaction. The hope is that more information may be gained from these trials to see if coffee producers can choose varieties that are optimized for certain growing environments.  

As a result of our support for their study Red Cedar Coffee Co. had the opportunity to try several coffees from a trial in El Salvador which tested one coffee variety (F1 hybrid Centroamericano) from two environments with two approaches to fertilizing.

This is just one example of how our support for this cause helps us be on the cutting edge of coffee education.

More information on World Coffee Research may be found here.