THE VARIETY

CATUAI
Catuai is a cross between highly productive Mundo Novo and compact Caturra, bred by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas, Brazil in 1949. It was released in 1972 after pedigree selection (selection of individual plants through successive generations) and is widely cultivated up to this date. 

Outside of Brazil, it was first introduced in Guatemala in 1970, even before the release in Brazil. Currently Catuai accounts for around 20% of the country's coffee total production. 

It is also widely cultivated in Honduras, where it was introduced in 1979 after extensive tests by Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFÉ). It was released commercially in 1983, after IHCAFÉ selected two lines for planting. In Honduras today, Catuai accounts for nearly half of the Arabica coffee in cultivation. Researchers at IHCAFÉ are actively engaged in breeding with Catuai and creating hybrid crosses between Catuai and Timor Hybrid lines.

Catuai is also economically important in Costa Rica, where a yellow-fruiting Catuai was introduced in 1985, and its descendants have spread widely through the country. 

It has a negligible presence in other Central American countries. 

The plant is highly productive compared to Bourbon, in part because of its small size, which allows plants to be closely spaced - it can be planted at nearly double the density compared to other varieties. Because of this characteristic, the introduction of Catuai partly led to the intensification of full-sun coffee cultivation in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s. The plant’s shape also makes it relatively easy to apply pest and disease treatments. It is characterised by great vigour and low height, while it is less compact than Caturra. There are yellow-fruited and red-fruited types, with numerous variation at present. Catuai's downside is that it is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust.

PACHE
Pache is a natural mutation of the Typica variety related to a single gene that causes the plant to grow smaller (dwarfism), which allows it to be planted more densely and achieve higher yields. The variety was discovered in 1949 in Guatemala on the Brito farm in Santa Cruz Naranjo, Santa Rosa. From there it was selected through mass selection: a group of individuals were selected based on their superior performance, seed from these plants was bulked to form a new generation, and then the process was repeated. Mass selection took place across private farms in Guatemala, and from there spread to other regions and countries.