Coffee at the Hotel Richmond, Geneva

Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Uganda is starting a planting programme for wilt-free coffee strains. Wilt, a fungus, has killed half of the country’s robusta variety coffee plants in 20 years. Uganda is Africa’s second largest coffee producer, after Ethiopia, but the largest producer of robusta, which accounts for 85 percent of its coffee exports. The new disease-free strain was developed by Uganda’s Coffee Research Institute and gardens will be planted with the new strain this year, Uganda-based Emma Joynson-Hicks of Cafe Africa told Bloomberg.

Cafe Africa was started in Nyon in 2006 by John Schluter, a retired Ugandan coffee grower, to reduce poverty in Africa by helping the continent restore its coffee industry to 1975 levels, when it was a major player in the world coffee business.

Robusta is often mixed with Arabica, particularly in France and Italy, to add strength to coffee.

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