Starbucks develops coffee seeds that can withstand climate change effects


Aliya Uteuova
Wed, 4 October 2023 

Photograph: Nicholas.T Ansell/PA

Starbucks recently announced that it has developed six new varieties of coffee seeds that can withstand the effects of climate change, which some experts say is “critical” for the future of coffee.

People in the US drink about 517m cups of coffee a day collectively, with the average American consuming three cups on a daily basis. But coffee, like many other crops, is under threat due to the climate crisis – subject to diseases, droughts and extreme weather conditions.

Most of the coffee consumed worldwide comes from two species – arabica and robusta. Accounting for 70% of global coffee production, the arabica bean is more popular and for a good reason. Its smoother flavor, lower acidity and fruity hints rank paramount to robusta’s grainy, more bitter flavor. Native to Ethiopia and predominantly grown in Central and South America, arabica is the only bean that Starbucks uses in its nearly 37,000 locations worldwide. But its sensitivity to rising temperatures makes it especially vulnerable to premature ripening and crop loss.

“More researchers doing work that will provide climate resilient varieties is critical,” said Sarada Krishnan, a coffee scientist and grower. Robusta, a thicker bean, is generally more favorable to heat, and therefore easier to grow. Arabica on the other hand, with its low genetic diversity, is more susceptible to diseases like coffee leaf rust – a fungus that can overtake the plant when the conditions are warmer and wetter.

“When smallholder farmers get that, they lose and their whole income for the year is gone,” Krishnan, who owns an arabica coffee farm in Jamaica and knows the challenges of dealing with the disease first-hand, said. “Last year toward the end of the harvest, the rust came, and if you let the rust take over then you lose the plant and it will take five years to get a fruit crop.”

Starbucks-developed arabica seeds are cultivated to resist the leaf rust and tests have been shown to generate a higher yield in a shorter period of time. According to the company, the Starbucks agronomy team plants several different varieties and hybrids of seeds, monitoring the trees’ resistance to diseases and nutrient absorption through at least six generations or about 12 years.

“Starbucks is committed to ensuring the future of coffee,” said a representative of the company in an email. “We have a responsibility to care for the entire supply chain and the many people who make coffee possible, from bean to cup, farmer to customer.”

The company is giving away its six climate-resilient coffee tree varieties to farmers who are free to sell the resulting crop to buyers other than Starbucks. The coffee giant buys from about 400,000 farmers across 30 countries, and over the last five years, it has given away three million climate-resistant seeds annually, developed by others to farms in Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, China, Indonesia, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

This article was amended on 4 October 2023 to correct the number of Starbucks locations worldwide and the number of seeds given away each year.