Gourmet Coffee Contract to benefit Costa Rica

CATIE and ICAFE sign agreement to benefit coffee producers

Up to 3 million new coffee plants with high productivity and an excellent cup profile will be made available to Costa Rica’s coffee farmers to enable them to renew their coffee plantations, thanks to a cooperation agreement signed between the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE) and CATIE.

The new coffee plants, known as F1 Hybrids, are more productive than the conventional varieties commonly grown in the country, with average yields 27% higher than Caturra and Catuai varieties. In addition, they respond extremely well to the agronomic pruning practices and offer good resistance to coffee leaf rust  Under the agreement, ICAFE will provide resources to purchase equipment, recruit personnel and fit out CATIE’s Biotechnology Laboratory to reproduce the F1 Hybrids through a technique of high-frequency somatic embryogenesis and the use of temporary immersion bioreactors.

Beginning in the third year of the agreement, the laboratory will produce one million plants annually (i.e., 3 million plants over the five-year period), with good morphological qualities, free of pests and diseases and ready for their acclimation by ICAFE.

F1 Hybrids

The project to create the F1 Hybrids was initiated in 1992 with experts from the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), CATIE, PROMECAFE and ICAFE. The idea was to evaluate the coffee genetic resources at CATIE and create the F1 Hybrids based on materials endowed with good genetic variability. These materials were then reproduced using the technique of somatic embryogenesis and field testing was carried out in different environments.

Researchers studied the genetic variability of the materials from CATIE’s germplasm bank and determined that this quality is present in a significant proportion of the coffee types from Ethiopia: materials from the wild with outstanding agronomic characteristics that can be crossed with traditional varieties grown in our region. The materials that showed properties of good variability were crossed with the traditional Caturra or Catuai varieties.

The resulting individuals are F1 Hybrids produced by artificially crossing two genetically distinct individuals, taking advantage of their hybrid vigor which is expressed in characteristics such as increased development and production, very good adaptability and an excellent cup profile.