World coffee research expands coffee varieties catalog

World Coffee Research Brings in New Coffee Varieties Catalogue Including Africa

World Coffee Research Brings in New Coffee Varieties Catalogue Including Africa The Not-For-Profit venture World Coffee research expands the catalogue of Arabian Coffee Varieties with the new edition of varieties from six various African countries with detailed introduction and new discoveries in historical and genetic researches.

This expansion involved visits to sixteen coffee producing lands and interviews with more than 180 interviews. This expansion has been supported by Rainforest Alliance/UTZ & USAID. The catalogue has covered varieties of coffee found in the Caribbean and Central American region primarily. Now, the catalogue includes details regarding African countries Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Uganda. The catalogue has been designed as free-to-access document in order to support farmers of coffee in replanting, planting and planning varieties of coffee -properties like plant statue, yield potential, high altitude and the quality potential, optimal altitude, CBD susceptibility, leaf tip color, bean size, leaf rust susceptibility and many more. Each property includes some description and a number of properties have graphic elements for reference.

Initially, the catalogue was designed as a response to outbreak of leaf rust that was pervasive throughout the South American, Central American and Mexican region in the year 2011.

According to Christophe Montagnon, Scientific director of WCR, who is a lead author on the catalogue, the catalogue is a live document and with the expansion of global reach, the document will support more number of farmers in their difficult decisions for the long term sustainability of their farms.

In addition to this expansion in African region, the WCR team has taken part in updating the documents with significant new findings relevant to genetic history of coffee.

WCR stated "we have been continuously improving ourselves in the knowledge of genetic history of coffee. For this new edition of catalogue of Arabica Coffee Varieties, we have incorporated few substantial updates on the basis of new researches on DNA database, which includes the insight that there are Bourbon and Typica genetic groups in fact to which the different bourbon and Typica varieties belong. The varieties in every group have similar genetics like cousins however they are not same. The new edition of the catalogue also connects with new certification program of WCR designed for sellers and buyers of coffee beans.