Nestlé news release photo.
Multi-year field research by Nestlé and Côte d’Ivoire’s national agricultural research center found that planting a mix of six robusta coffee varieties can raise yields by up to 86% compared with a commonly used local variety, while also improving cup quality, according to Nestlé.
The results add to a slow-moving wave of coffee breeding efforts as climate change alters growing conditions for both arabica and robusta across the coffee belt.
Côte d’Ivoire Varieties
In a May 7 announcement, Nestlé said the work was carried out with Côte d’Ivoire’s Centre National de Recherche Agronomique, or CNRA, beginning in 2018 across four coffee-growing regions, where researchers evaluated 18 robusta varieties for yield, flavor, green coffee quality, drought tolerance and performance under climate stress.
Two of the six top-performing varieties were developed by the company and four by CNRA. The company said additional trials showed the best results came not from a single standout variety, but from planting the six together. Nestlé also said sensory testing found less bitterness and fewer woody notes than found in other robustas.
The six varieties have now been officially registered in Côte d’Ivoire, and Nestlé said the mix of varieties will be distributed to cooperatives under its in-house sustainability initiative called the Nescafé Plan.
Nestlé has longstanding involvement in the Côte d’Ivoire coffee and cocoa sectors, including a 30-hectare experimental farm and training center that opened in 2013. In August 2024, CNRA said the two organizations had joined forces to develop a new robusta variety, with plans to distribute 4.2 million coffee plants to producers.
Increased Robusta Breeding
Meanwhile, there is a broader industry push to improve robusta genetics against the backdrop of climate change, disease pressure and persistent farmer profitability challenges.
A recent review in Frontiers in Plant Science underscored the urgency of robusta breeding, noting that the species accounts for roughly 70 million to 76 million 60-kilogram bags annually, while current variety-development cycles can take more than 20 years.
The paper, led by World Coffee Research’s Robert Kawuki, said robusta breeding programs in countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Ghana, Vietnam, India and Brazil will need faster tools and stronger collaboration to keep pace with climate change.
Nestlé has been privately engaged in numerous breeding efforts, including backing the development of a higher-yielding arabica variety called Star 4 and two robusta varieties, Roubi 1 and Roubi 2, with potential yields up to 50% above standard varieties, according to the company.
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