News Manager
COLLEGE STATION — Efforts to protect the multibillion dollar-a-year coffee industry are abuzz at Texas A&M University with the creation of a new center.
Coffee is the main source of income for about 100 million people globally with a $170 billion retail value.
However, the industry faces serious problems: Diseases, narrow genetic diversity, climate change and an ever-increasing global demand.
The Texas A&M Board of Regents voted to create a premier scientific center to advance research and to improve the quality and sustainability of coffee.
The Center for Coffee Research and Education seeks to make rapid gains in research to sustain and grow the world’s coffee supply, through fundamental research both at the center and at coffee farms of producing countries.
“Compared to other influential crops, relatively little research has been conducted on coffee that would support farmer resiliency to such challenges,” said Dr. Leo Lombardini, director of the center.
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Texas A&M AgriLife Research is the state’s premier research agency in agriculture, natural resources, and the life sciences. We conduct hundreds of projects spanning many scientific disciplines to deliver life-sustaining and industry-changing impacts to citizens throughout Texas and around the world.
A member of The Texas A&M University System, AgriLife Research collaborates with the Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and many others to help fulfill the A&M System’s land-grant mission of teaching, research, extension, and service.
