Unlocking the full value of the coffee plant

On 18 October 2026, the Center for Circular Economy in Coffee, co-coordinated by the International Trade Centre (ITC), convened a satellite workshop at the International Coffee Convention in Trieste, Italy, to address EU regulatory barriers limiting the commercialization of coffee by-products, according to a press release by ITC. The gathering brought scientists, regulators and industry representatives together to map a path forward. Participants included the International Coffee Organization and the European Coffee Federation. They explored how EU market access for coffee by-products and lesser-known wild Coffea species could be expanded. The discussion aimed to identify both near-term and long-term solutions.

Less than 5% of the coffee plant ends up in the cup. The remainder, including husks, silverskin, leaves and pulp, amounts to around 40 million tonnes a year, most of it treated as waste. For farmers and small businesses in producing countries, that represents an enormous missed opportunity. Regulatory barriers in the EU’s major consumer market are a key reason it remains unrealized. The workshop sought to tackle this gap between potential and practice.

Under EU novel food legislation, authorizations are granted product by product and species by species. Cascara and coffee leaf infusions are currently approved only for Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, leaving most wild species and by-products all but impossible to commercialize. As the coffee sector focuses on circularity, climate resilience and income diversification at origin, this fragmentation acts as a brake on innovation and market access. Participants explored two strategic pathways: broadening and consolidating authorizations within the existing framework, and pursuing a longer-term systemic exclusion of the entire Coffea genus from the novel food scope. Both routes will rely on a shared body of evidence.

“For farmers and small businesses in producing countries, these by-products are a real opportunity for new income, but only if they can reach markets,” said Christopher Tenga, an ITC national coordinator in Ghana. He added that the workshop brought science, industry and international organizations to the same table to find practical ways forward. Dirk Lachenmeier of CVUA Karlsruhe, who chairs the International Coffee Convention’s Scientific Committee, noted that every part of the plant and every species is treated separately under current rules. Steffen Schwarz of the Coffee Consulate stated, “What we need is not easier regulation, but better regulation.”

As climate change threatens to make large areas of today’s Arabica-growing land unsuitable by 2050, wild Coffea species represent both a conservation priority and a commercial opportunity.

Participants agreed to continue work through a joint working group of the Center and the Convention. Outcomes will be set out in a published workshop report. Vanúsia Nogueira, Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization, observed that the EU leads on regulation for food safety, the environment and human rights, and other markets often follow. Getting it right for coffee in this market matters for the whole sector. The initiative underscores how clearer regulatory pathways could unlock new value across the coffee plant.