ICC 2026 Trieste

A unique format in global coffee

The International Coffee Convention is neither a purely academic conference nor a conventional trade fair. It is a highly focused international forum where scientific depth, industry relevance and interdisciplinary exchange come together in a format designed for real-world application.
Held in Mannheim in 2023 and 2024 and now coming to Trieste in October 2026, ICC has developed a distinct identity within the global coffee landscape. Its defining strength lies in a rare balance: rigorous research is not presented in isolation, but brought into direct conversation with the immediate needs of the coffee sector.
Among the vast body of ongoing research, ICC curates with intention. The focus is not on abstract complexity for its own sake, but on work that is methodologically sound, strategically relevant and practically interpretable for decision-makers across the coffee world.

International Coffee Convention (ICC) — held in Mannheim in 2023 and 2024 and scheduled for October 2026 in Trieste — stands apart in the global coffee landscape.

Its distinctiveness lies in a rare balance: ICC brings rigorous scientific thinking into direct dialogue with the immediate, concrete needs of the coffee industry. Among the vast body of ongoing research, ICC curates with intention, selecting work that is not only robust but directly relevant to coffee professionals today.

The programme spans health and safety, sensory science, circular economy, and novel food applications — alongside the Nagoya Protocol and the sustainable use of genetic resources under climate change. It equally engages with processing innovation, supply chain dynamics, consumer behavior, and evolving market patterns.

The diversity of topics is mirrored by the diversity of speakers: agronomists, geneticists, chemists, toxicologists, sensory scientists, economists, and behavioral researchers share the stage with industry leaders and practitioners, fostering a rare cross-fertilization between disciplines and real-world experience.

Condensed into two focused days, ICC favors substance over spectacle: sharp insights, meaningful exchanges, and highly effective networking. The publicly available recordings from the 2023 and 2024 editions clearly testify to this singular intellectual identity (https://www.youtube.com/@InternationalCoffeeConvention). 

Applied science for the coffee world

International Coffee Convention (ICC) — held in Mannheim in 2023 and 2024 and scheduled for October 2026 in Trieste — stands apart in the global coffee landscape.
Its distinctiveness lies in a rare balance: ICC brings rigorous scientific thinking into direct dialogue with the immediate, concrete needs of the coffee industry. Among the vast body of ongoing research, ICC curates with intention, selecting work that is not only robust but directly relevant to coffee professionals today.
The programme spans health and safety, sensory science, circular economy and novel food applications — alongside the Nagoya Protocol and the sustainable use of genetic resources under climate change. It equally engages with processing innovation, supply chain dynamics, consumer behaviour and evolving market patterns.
The diversity of topics is mirrored by the diversity of speakers: agronomists, geneticists, chemists, toxicologists, sensory scientists, economists and behavioural researchers share the stage with industry leaders and practitioners, fostering a rare cross-fertilisation between disciplines and real-world experience.
Condensed into two focused days, ICC favours substance over spectacle: sharp insights, meaningful exchanges and highly effective networking. ICC is neither a purely academic conference nor a commercial trade fair. It is a distinctive and valuable alchemy between both.

Why Attend

Scientific rigour with practical consequence
ICC curates research that is methodologically robust and directly relevant to today’s coffee industry.

Relevance across the full value chain
Coffee cultivation, genetics, trade, logistics, roasting, processing, technology, hospitality and consumer markets are considered together rather than in isolation.

Insight you can act on
The emphasis is not on theory for its own sake, but on interpretation, implication and application.

High-value networking
ICC creates the conditions for meaningful conversations between researchers, industry leaders, technical specialists and practitioners.

Who should attend

ICC is designed for professionals and institutions that shape the future of coffee, including:

• coffee producers and producer organisations
  
• exporters, importers and traders
  
• roasters and product developers
  
• coffee machine and technology manufacturers
  
• cafés, hotels, vending operators and foodservice businesses
  
• quality managers, sensory professionals and consultants
  
• researchers, universities and technical institutes
  
• policy, compliance and sustainability stakeholders
  

Whether you are looking for scientific insight, strategic orientation, practical solutions or high-level professional exchange, ICC offers a rare concentration of relevance in just two days.

Programme Preview 2026

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.

Call for Papers

ICC 2026 invites researchers, experts and practitioners to submit contributions that combine scientific quality with practical relevance.
We welcome presentations that address the pressing challenges and emerging opportunities of the coffee sector — always with an emphasis on applicability, clarity and interdisciplinary value.
Whether your work focuses on cultivation, processing, regulation, markets, consumer behaviour, sustainability, technology or social impact, ICC offers a platform where research meets decision-making.

Archive / Scientific Credibility

Built on substance

ICC is not an event without a record. Previous editions have already established a strong body of accessible scientific and industry-relevant content

Access knowledge resources

• proceedings and abstracts
  
• conference reports
  
• selected video recordings
  
• printed and digital publications
  

For professionals discovering ICC for the first time, the archive offers a clear impression of the depth, quality and distinctive character of the convention

Explore previous editions

Videos & Knowledge Hub

Watch, read and revisit

ICC extends beyond the live event. Selected recordings from previous editions are publicly available, while additional talks, proceedings and publications can be accessed through the convention’s knowledge and shop sections.
This makes ICC not only a place to attend, but a growing platform for applied knowledge in coffee.

• featured recording
  
• selected free talks
  
• access to full recordings
  
• proceedings and printed booklets
  

Networking & Exchange

More than a conference

ICC is also a place for exchange: between disciplines, between theory and practice, and between professionals who rarely meet in one room.
Researchers meet roasters. Agronomists meet traders. Technical specialists meet hospitality professionals. This density of perspectives is one of ICC’s greatest strengths — and one of the reasons its conversations continue long after the sessions end.

• In-person value
  
• Meet researchers and decision-makers
  
• cross-sector conversations
  
• compact two-day format
  

Sponsors, Partners & Media Partner

Partner with ICC

ICC offers sponsors and partners a distinctive environment: highly focused, internationally relevant and closely aligned with the future challenges of the coffee sector.
For companies, institutions and organisations wishing to position themselves at the intersection of science, innovation and industry dialogue, ICC provides a credible and high-value platform.
Sponsorship opportunities include visibility, strategic presence, knowledge support and direct access to a specialised professional audience.

Press & Media

ICC provides journalists, editors and media partners with access to press materials, conference information, thematic background resources and documentation from previous editions.

The convention is especially relevant to media covering:

• coffee and food systems
  
• agriculture and sustainability
  
• climate adaptation
  
• consumer markets
  
• processing and technology
  
• regulation and international trade