Programme 2026

Applied science across the coffee value chain

The ICC 2026 programme is designed to connect rigorous research with the strategic, technical and operational realities of the coffee sector.

The programme brings together contributions from science, industry and practice in a format that values clarity, relevance and interdisciplinary exchange.
Rather than treating coffee as a set of isolated topics, ICC approaches it as a connected system. Climate, agriculture, processing, trade, technology, sensory science, consumer behaviour, ethics and regulation are understood not as separate conversations, but as interdependent forces shaping the future of the sector.
The programme for the upcoming edition will be published in full shortly. The thematic structure is already defined and reflects the major challenges and opportunities currently facing global coffee.

International Coffee Convention 2026
Trieste · 19-20 October 2026
Coffee at the Crossroads: Climate, Consumers and Circularity

Preliminary programme
A preliminary overview of accepted contributions, grouped by theme. Ordering and schedule are provisional and subject to change.

Climate, Cultivars & Resilience

• Beyond Adaptation: The Role of Time in Defining Coffee Cultivar Resilience
  Christophe Montagnon, Flavia M. De M. Bliska, Oliveiro Guerreiro Filho, Bianca Serito [DOI]
• The Lessons of the Coffee Leaf Rust (Hemileia vastatrix) Pandemic in the Age of Climate Change
  Stuart McCook [DOI]

• Searching for Net Zero: Lessons on Assessing the Carbon-Footprint of Coffee Production Jeremy Haggar, Conor Walsh [DOI]

• Nature Does Not Care About Certificates: A Science-Based Strategy Map for Resilient Coffee Production
  Jörg Rieke-Zapp, Steffen Schwarz [DOI]
• Recent Genomic Findings on Liberica and Excelsa: Implications for the Future of Liberica and Coffee Breeding Strategy in Sarawak, Malaysia
  Kenny Wee Ting Lee, Diana Jitam [DOI]

• Enhancing the Conservation, Exchange and Use of Coffee Genetic Resources: Outcomes of an International Workshop on Access and Benefit-Sharing
  Sarada Krishnan, Christophe Montagnon, Paula Bramel, Daniele Manzella, Desire Pokou, Marleen Engbers, Vanusia Nogueira, Ariana Ocampo Cruz, Tania Humphrey, Steffen Schwarz, Dirk W. Lachenmeier [DOI]
• A Report of the Association of Pythium with Root Rot of Nursery Coffee Seedlings in Southwestern Saudi Arabia
  Wail Alsolami, Habib Khemira [DOI to follow]
• Does Coffee Need a Purity Law? Wild Species, Regional Substitutes and Cell-Cultured Coffee at the Frontier of Climate Change
  Dirk W. Lachenmeier, Constanze Sproll [DOI to follow]

• A Second Useful Life of Coffee Silver Skin
  Maria Martuscelli, Matteo Carletta, Gianfranco Desideri, Ali Mohsin [DOI]
• Coffee Silverskin as a Sustainable Substrate for Kombucha Development
  Nadia Guzińska, Urszula Dziekońska-Kubczak, Vanessa Sánchez-Martín, Edyta Kordialik-Bogacka, Maria Dolores del Castillo [DOI]
• 3% in the Cup, 97% in the Loop: Cascading Coffee By-Products for Circular Materials
  Mirko Rennert [DOI]
• Economic and Environmental Potential of Coffee Waste Valorization through Biogas and Activated Carbon Production
  Mariano Peluso [DOI]

• Antioxidant Potential of Coffee Leaf Infusion Powder for Sustainable Beverage Applications
  Vanesa Sánchez-Martín, María Castro Ruiz, Jose Manuel Silvan, Igor P. Turkiewicz, Karolina Tkacz, María Dolores del Castillo* (*presenting author) [DOI]
• Beyond the Coffee Bean: Development and Characterization of a Novel Beverage Category from Processed Arabica Coffee Leaves
  Georg Raudaschl [DOI]
• Cascara at the Post-Market Crossroads: A Systematic Review of Dietary Exposure and Health Effects with Integrated Assessment
  Vanesa Sánchez-Martín, María Dolores del Castillo, Adriana Farah, Dirk W. Lachenmeier [DOI]

• Deep Learning-Driven Annual Coffee and Forest Mapping for Enhanced EUDR Deforestation Assessment
  Simon Pena Pereira, Alana Kasahara Neves, Aneesha Musunuri, Jhony Alexander Sanchez Vargas, Natasha Randall, Sven Wöhrle [DOI]
• Scaling Up Traceability in Coffee Supply Chains and Reducing Complexity of Deforestation-Free Compliance Through Standardised Identification and Data Sharing: The Case of GS1
  Giacomo Celi, Piergiorgio Licciardello [DOI]
• Coffee Atlas: AI Supported Identification of Coffee Varieties in the Context of Climate Resilient Coffee Farming
  Katharina Salewski, Kai Eckert, Kirstin Kohler [DOI]
• Coffee Traceability Demonstrator Based on Digital Product Passport Principles
  Moritz Maier, Michel Rindlisbacher, Jörg Grimm, Stefan Grösser [DOI to follow]
• Beyond Traceability: Digital Fairness, Cultural Trust Mechanisms, and Farmer SOP Compliance in Indonesian Specialty Coffee
  Ganjar Satyanagara [DOI]

• Distinguishable but Preferred: Consumer Discrimination and Preference for a Lupin-Based Coffee Alternative
  Sudenaz Akduman, Yves Clément Zimmermann, Steffen Schwarz [DOI]
• Beyond Flavor: Bridging Coffee Science and Consumer Understanding Through Evidence-Based Health Communication
  Amany Adam [DOI]
• Defining Coffeescapes: A Conceptual Approach Using the Theory of Three Landscapes
  Ralf Vogler [DOI to follow]

• Coffee Challenges 2026
  Massimiliano Fabian [DOI to follow]

• A moderated round-table discussion. Further details to follow.

• On the Sunday preceding the convention (18 Oct), two satellite meetings will be held on the Nagoya Protocol and on Novel Food. Attendance is by invitation only; further details to follow.

• Establishment Requirements for Coffea stenophylla in Its Native Sierra Leone
  Jeremy Haggar, Aaron Davis, Daniel Sarmu, Alex Johnbull [DOI]
• Comprehensive Chemical Profiling of Coffee for Species and Fermentation Authentication: A Multi-Platform GC-Based Metabolomics Approach
  Faiza Iftikhar, Philipp Weller [DOI]
• Intracellular Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Coffee Leaf and Maté Infusions and Kombucha Fermented Beverages
  Amanda L. Sales, Juliana DePaula, Jéssika Rosa Morgado, Alessandro Maia, Marco Antônio L. Miguel, María Dolores Del Castillo, Adriana Farah [DOI]
• Effect of Vacuum Roasting on Physicochemical Properties and Acrylamide Content in Coffee
  Uilla F. Pimentel, José Faustino S. Carvalho Filho, Sara C. Cunha, José O. Fernandes, Veronica Maria Calado, Adriana Farah [DOI]
• Kombucha Fermentation of Coffee Seeds and Cascara: Effects on Bioactive Compounds, Physicochemical Aspects, and Consumer Acceptance
  Jéssika Rosa Morgado, Juliana DePaula, Alessandro Maia, Marco Antonio L. Miguel, Adriana Farah [DOI]
• Detoxification of Ochratoxin A During Black Tea and Coffee Kombucha Fermentation
  Jéssika Rosa Morgado, André V. Sartori, Marco Antonio L. Miguel, Adriana Farah [DOI]
• Analysis of the Coffee Species Coffea liberica for Diterpene Marker Molecules Using HPLC
  Dennis Gerrit Diekmann, Meike Holtmann, Oliver Süße-Herrmann [DOI to follow]
• Sensory and Chemical Characterization of Coffee Cherry Syrups: Influence of Cherry Maturity Stage, Species, and Processing Method
  Steffen Schwarz, Jörg Rieke-Zapp, Dirk W. Lachenmeier [DOI to follow]
• Deep Profiling of Controlled-Fermented Coffees Using a Multimodal Analytical Platform
  Robert Engel, Philipp Weller [DOI to follow]

Preliminary programme — contributions grouped by theme; ordering and schedule not yet fixed and subject to change. “[DOI to follow]” marks abstracts currently in final copy editing not yet published.

International Coffee Convention 2026 — Speakers & Presenters
Trieste · 19–20 October 2026

Speakers (oral presentations)

• Amany Adam — Independent Researcher, Cairo, Egypt
• Wail Alsolami — Jazan University, College of Science, Dept. of Biology, Saudi Arabia
• Giacomo Celi — GS1 AISBL, Brussels, Belgium
• María Dolores del Castillo — CIAL (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain
• Massimiliano Fabian — Demus S.p.A., Trieste, Italy
• Nadia Guzińska — Lodz University of Technology, Poland
• Jeremy Haggar — Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK
• Sarada Krishnan — Global Crop Diversity Trust, Bonn, Germany
• Dirk W. Lachenmeier — CVUA Karlsruhe, Germany
• Kenny Wee Ting Lee — Earthlings Coffee Workshop, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
• Moritz Maier — Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
• Maria Martuscelli — University of Teramo, Italy
• Stuart McCook — University of Guelph, ON, Canada
• Christophe Montagnon — RD2 Vision, Valflaunes, France
• Mariano Peluso — CoffeeBI, Milan, Italy
• Simon Pena Pereira — GRAS Global Risk Assessment Services GmbH, Cologne, Germany
• Georg Raudaschl — Kalae Arabica Co., Ltd., Chiang Rai, Thailand
• Mirko Rennert — University of Potsdam / Twins Crew GmbH, Werder (Havel), Germany
• Jörg Rieke-Zapp — Rubiacea Research & Development GmbH, Mannheim, Germany
• Katharina Salewski — Technische Hochschule Mannheim, Germany
• Vanesa Sánchez-Martín — CIAL (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain
• Ganjar Satyanagara — Q.co, Jakarta, Indonesia

Poster presenters

• Dennis Gerrit Diekmann — ANKA Angewandte Kaffeetechnologie GmbH, Germany
• Robert Engel — Institute for Instrumental Analysis and Bioanalytics, Technische Hochschule Mannheim, Germany
• Adriana Farah — Inst. de Nutrição (NUPECAFÉ), UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Faiza Iftikhar — Technische Hochschule Mannheim, Germany
• Steffen Schwarz — Coffee Consulate, Mannheim, Germany
• Yves Zimmermann — Heilbronn University, Germany

*Presenters listed alphabetically by surname; affiliation shown for the presenting author.