About Integrated Coffee Technologies, Inc.

Integrated Coffee Technologies, Inc. specializes in applying biotechnology to plantation beverage crops such as coffee and tea. Our lead products are caffeine-free coffee plants and controlled ripening coffee plants. Additional products will include coffee and tea plants with improved disease resistance and tolerance of environmental stresses such as cold and drought. We have exclusive licenses to two patents; one for the production of caffeine-free beverages, and the other for controlling the ripening process of coffee fruit.

Although coffee is the second largest commodity in world trade after oil with an annual trading volume of US$ 40 billion, the major agricultural biotechnology and seed companies have not pursued this market. Because of the market size and the lack of competition we believe that there are significant business opportunities in the coffee and tea markets for the sale of plants with unique characteristics, such as the caffeine-free trait, and improved agricultural traits.

Integrated Coffee was incorporated in 1995 and is privately held. The corporate offices, laboratories and experimental field plots are located in Waialua, Hawaii on the north shore of the island of Oah'u. Facilities include 7,400 sq. feet of office and laboratory space.

Leading the company is its CEO Christian Stüdlein and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. John Stiles. Mr. Stüdlein has many years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, interim management, and corporate fund raising. Dr. Stiles has over 30 years experience in genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology and has worked with coffee for the past fourteen years.

Integrated Coffee Technologies is currently in the process of raising capital for continued research and for development of production capabilities. Qualified investment groups can receive additional preliminary information available on the investors page. Please contact us to access this page.

Research Projects:

Caffeine-free Coffee

We believe that our caffeine-free technology will have a significant impact in the US$ 4 billion worldwide decaf coffee market. The current chemical decaf technologies decrease coffee quality. The most rapidly growing segment of the coffee industry is specialty coffee with a premium on quality. Our naturally caffeine-free coffee will retain all of the quality of coffee. In addition, decaffeinated coffee have met with consumer resistance due to the chemicals used in the processes, our naturally caffeine-free coffee will negate the use of chemicals for caffeine removal. Naturally caffeine-free coffee will also eliminate an estimated US$ 500 million per year in processing costs. This is especially advantageous to smaller coffee companies that pay a premium for decaf processing. We believe that with an aging population of health conscious coffee consumers concerned about caffeine intake, yet still interested in high quality specialty coffee, our product is well positioned in the rapidly growing specialty coffee market.

Controlled-ripening Coffee

Our patented controlled ripening technology offers benefits throughout the coffee production industry. Originally this project was conceived to increase the efficiency of mechanical harvesting. Mechanical harvesting is rare in the coffee industry being used mainly in the non-Kona coffee production areas in Hawaii and in some of the newer production areas in Brazil. Both of these areas lack sufficient labor for hand harvesting and were developed specifically for mechanical harvesting which requires flat terrain with the trees in hedgerows. (Ninety to 95% of coffee production areas cannot utilize mechanical harvesting due to the steep terrain.) Currently there is up to 30% loss associated with mechanical harvesting. One of the major components of this loss is harvesting of immature fruit due to uneven ripening. Our technology will alleviate this problem and improve overall yield of fully mature fruit.

However, many farmers that cannot use mechanical harvesting have indicated an interest in this technology to improve utilization of labor and processing plants. Coffee ripens over a fairly short period. Controlling the ripening process will allow the farmer to both control and lengthen the harvest season. Capital costs relating to the processing plant (especially wet processing) will be reduced as less maximum capacity will be needed due to the lengthening and controlling the harvest season. Occasionally periods of warm and wet weather can result in rapid ripening such that the harvest exceeds the capacity of the processing plant resulting in stopping the harvest. This causes a loss in yield to the farmer and a loss in wages to the workers who are paid by the amount harvested. Rapid ripening can also cause losses due to an inadequate amount of available labor. Again both the farmer and the workers lose income. Our product will solve this problem benefiting both the farmer and the farm worker. Furthermore, under high volume processing conditions it is also possible to exceed the capacity of the processing plant to clean wastewater resulting in damage to the environment. Regulating the flow of ripe fruit using our technology will reduce this problem.

We believe that controlled ripening will also have a benefit for workers in the coffee industry. Currently most coffee farms require a large number of migrant workers for only a short period during the harvest season. They employ a much smaller number of full-time employees that do field preparation and upkeep and processing plant maintenance in the off season. With an extended harvest season, the migrant workers, and their families would have more stability making it easier to supply health care and education. It will also decrease the need for child labor to support family income. The number of full-time employees will increase because the off-season work will need to be completed in a shorter time.

Resistance to Disease and Environmental Conditions

As with other tropical crops, disease and pests are significant problems for coffee production. Chemicals have been used to control major coffee diseases for many years. However, additional options are needed. Coffee is often grown on terrain that is difficult to adequately treat with traditional chemical methods. Also, there are significant concerns for the health of workers and contamination of the environment. In addition, many coffee growers do not have access to adequate capital for purchase of equipment and chemicals. Biotechnology offers alternatives that are safe for the consumer, the farm workers and the environment. We believe there are significant commercial opportunities in this area as the major agricultural biotechnology companies are not involved in coffee. Likewise, environmental conditions such as frost and drought can have extremely destabilizing effects on the coffee industry. Application of recent developments in biotechnology should help to ease these environmental effects.

Nematode-resistant coffee

A significant nematode problem has recently been uncovered in Kona. University of Hawaii researchers have extimated that about 85% of the Kona coffee growing region is infested with a new species of nematode that attacks the 'Typica' variety of arabica coffee that is traditionally grown in Kona. In severe cases this can cause upto 60% loss of yield. A resistant coffee tree of a different species, C. liberica tree was found at the Kona Research Station. This species does not produce high qualtiy coffee but can be used as rootstock. We are now producing this rootstock in tissue culture to assure stable genetics with the highest resistance to the nematode. See our product page for further information.