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A high extinction threat for wild coffee could rattle the sector​

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Arabica coffee falters​

"If we go back to the middle of the nineteenth century, the world’s coffee came almost exclusively from one species – Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica). Towards the end of the nineteenth century a major problem appeared in Asia - a fungal disease called coffee leaf rust."

"In most circumstances, coffee leaf rust is devastating for coffee production, with the potential to wipe out whole plantations in a very short space of time. And this is exactly what happened in Asia, all but wiping out Arabica coffee production across the whole coffee growing region within less than 30 years."

"The response to this catastrophe was to bring in new, and little-known, species resistant to coffee leaf rust. Liberica coffee (C. liberica), from the northern part of tropical West Africa, was the first candidate to be brought in. It grew well, produced well, and was quite resistant to coffee leaf, but failed in spectacular fashion as it tastes quite awful."

"In 1897 Robusta coffee (C. canephora) was discovered and named as a new species by scientists, although we know that it had already been cultivated on a small scale in coastal West Africa from at least the early 1800s. Able to grow in warmer conditions, and in many cases being easier to cultivate than Arabica coffee, it was also highly productive, and tasted pretty good, too. Importantly, it was resistant to coffee leaf rust."

"From the early 1900s onwards its cultivation spread quickly through the tropical coffee belt, from Africa to the Americas and Asia. Today, it is cultivated more widely than Arabica coffee and comprises at least 40% of the global trade value for coffee. In just 120 years it has been transformed from a more or less unknown wild plant to a major global commodity!" READ MORE
 
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