The first is the bad news. The two types of coffee most of us drink – Arabica and Robusta – are at serious risk in the age of climate change.
Now the good news. Farmers in one of Africa’s biggest coffee exporting countries are growing a completely different variety that is more tolerant of heat, drought and disease caused by global warming.
For years, they just mixed it into bags of cheap robusta coffee. This year, they are trying to sell it to the world under its real name: Liberica excelsa.
“Even with too much heat, it’s fine,” said Golooba John, a coffee farmer near the town of Zirobwe in central Uganda. In the past few years, his tree has been damaged by pests and diseases, so he has replaced it with Liberica. On his six acres of land, Mr. John currently has only 50 varieties of robusta coffee and 1,000 varieties of Liberica.
He also drinks it. He says it’s more aromatic than Robusta, “more delicious.”
Catherine Kiwuka, a coffee expert at the National Agricultural Research Organization, called Liberica excelsa “a forgotten coffee species”. She was part of an experiment to introduce it to the world.
If it works, it could offer important lessons for small-scale coffee farmers elsewhere, demonstrating the importance of wild coffee varieties in a warming world. Liberica excelsa is native to tropical Central Africa. It was planted for a short time in the late 19th century before dying out. Then there’s the ravages of climate change. The Cultivators have revived Liberica once again.
Dr Kiwuka said: “With climate change, we should think about other species that could sustain this industry globally.
Currently, the goal is to develop high quality Liberica excelsa for export.
Volcafe, a global coffee trading company, hopes to ship up to three tonnes of coffee this year to specialty roasters overseas, including in the UK and the US.
While Arabica and Robusta are two widely grown coffees, there are more than 100 species that grow in the wild. A variety of Liberica has been cultivated in Southeast Asia for a century.
Another is Liberica excelsa, which is native to the lowlands of Uganda. Compared to robusta, which also originates from Uganda and is the predominant coffee variety grown in the region, Liberica coffee takes longer to mature and bear fruit.
Libericas are superior to robusta. Each tree can be up to 8m tall, so farmers have to use bamboo ladders to harvest. Or else, the tree must be pruned so that the branches grow wide and do not reach high.
About 200 farmers grew Liberica in small bags, sold it to local traders along with their robusta harvest and received the price of robusta coffee. Dr Kiwuka said she felt as if the farmers were “tricked”.
She said Liberica has a stronger aroma and is a higher quality coffee; farmers should have received higher prices.
In 2016, she invited Aaron Davis, a coffee scientist from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, to Zirobwe. At first he was skeptical. He’s tasted Liberica in other places and finds it like “vegetable soup,” he says.
But then, the next day, he grinds beans from Zirobwe in his hotel room. Yes, a coffee researcher always carries a hand blender with him when he travels.
“Actually, this isn’t bad,” he recalls thinking. It has potential.
Dr. Davis is no stranger to the risks that coffee faces. His research has found that climate change and deforestation are driving more than half of the world’s wild coffee species. in danger of extinction.
Dr. Kiwuka and Dr. Davis collaborated. They will encourage farmers to improve the harvesting and drying of their Liberica crops. Instead of throwing them in with robusta, they will sell Liberica coffee separately. If they meet certain standards, they will receive a higher price.
“In a warming world and in an age of supply chain disruptions, Liberica coffee could re-emerge as a major crop,” they wrote in Naturescientific journal, last December.
It has been a major crop in the orchards of Deogratius Ocheng.
When it rains less than last year, his two poles of coffee are affected. Withered leaves. The cherries are not forming properly. Similar problems affect much of Uganda, where robusta is the dominant species.
According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, this year’s exports are expected to be lower than last year. Drought and pests are to blame. If I relied solely on robusta coffee, Mr. Ocheng said: “I would fall into extreme poverty.”
Thankfully, he had two more acres of Liberica land.
What does Liberica excelsa taste like when dried, peeled and roasted? Dr. Davis calls it “mellow” and “easy to drink.” It has a heavy aroma, less caffeine than Robusta.
“It’s Beaujolais nouveau,” he said. “It’s very soft.”
Musinguzi Blanshe contributed reporting from Kampala.
