New Hybrid Coffee Variety Might Open Doors In The Industry

If you're a coffee drinker, you've most likely heard the term "Arabica" thrown around regarding coffee beans. Arabica, indigenous to Ethiopia, is one of the most common types of coffee bean. Recently, the nonprofit organization World Coffee Research has announced that there's a new coffee variety in town, and it might change the game for coffee producers.

According to the organization, the new coffee variety, Starmaya, is the first of its kind — an F1 hybrid bred by seed rather than biotechnology. Since it's propagated by seed, it could potentially open doors to "an elite class of varieties."

Prior to the Starmaya, the possibility for most farmers to gain access to F1 hybrids was very small, as they can currently only be produced by "technically sophisticated nurseries."

The nonprofit says it plans to incorporate the hybrid into two major research programs that will hopefully allow the variety to become more accessible to farmers in the future.