Australian coffee growers are hoping for a bumper 2026 season to meet rising demand for homegrown beans.

Fuelling that hope was the explosion of white, star-like flowers that covered coffee bushes across the country during November's flowering season.

Coffee farms are transformed into a sea of white as the trees burst with star-like white flowers. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Australian Grown Coffee Association president Rebecca Zentveld said it was the best flowering in six years at her farm in Newrybar, near Byron Bay. 

Ms Zentveld said the positive signs for the crop in 2026 were welcome after a smaller-than-expected harvest this year.

Rebecca Zentveld checks the flowering on her coffee trees. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Poor weather in coffee-growing countries, including Brazil and Vietnam, in recent years, has meant Australian growers have been well-placed to fill the gap.

Beautiful blossoming

Coffee plants are known for their short flowering season, generally lasting just two days.

"That tiny little bud of the next fruit starts to grow for the next eleven months," Ms Zentveld said.

Coffee cherries left from the 2025 harvest among the blossoms. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

"Not every flower will turn into a little fruit; we will allow some to drop and accept that, and it's a really good start."

The flowers present not only a visual sensation on farms. The short-lived blossoming offers a multi-sensory experience for growers and visitors.

A European honey bee prepares to collect nectar from the white blossom of a coffee cherry. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

A honey bee with pollen baskets hovers over coffee blossoms. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Bees are kept busy collecting nectar and pollinating the coffee cherries. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

The bees are busy buzzing about collecting nectar from the blossoms, which have a sweet jasmine-like smell that even wafts beyond the farm fence.

"They're going crazy, often what we do is hear the bees first, the hum, they will be out in force," Ms Zentveld said.

"We've had people drive past with their windows down and come in on the day that the blossoms are out because they could smell them in the air."

Rebecca Zentveld and a tour group stop to smell the coffee flowers. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

A welcome sign at Zentveld's Coffee Farm & Roastery at Newrybar. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Rebecca Zentveld snaps a photo of some visitors to the farm with the coffee blossoms.  (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

"It is just marvellous, just extraordinary."

Small variety with big potential

Growers at the Zentveld farm are particularly excited by the amount of blossoms on a new coffee variety that is being trialled there.

Ms Zentveld said one of the dwarf varieties, Marsellesa, had put out more flowers than her Kenyan K7 trees.

Rebecca Zentveld with the Marsellesa coffee tree.  (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

"The blossoms are bigger than the two main varieties we grow in Australia," she said.

"So that's going to be interesting to see if that equates to overall big-sized fruit or coffee bean."

Marsellesa, a hybrid of Sarchimor and Caturra developed in Nicaragua, is a high-yielding, rust-resistant variety that researchers believe could be better suited for Australian conditions than the Kenyan K7.

White blossoms on the Marsellesa coffee variety. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Coffee converts

Ms Zentveld said speciality coffee roasters were crying out for locally grown beans.

"They're willing to pay the money for it, which is a wonderful thing to keep our growers going and profitable. That's what we want," she said.

That growing demand has seen the industry expand further within NSW and Queensland and into Western Australia.

A wallaby among the coffee trees. (Supplied: Kim Honan)

Ms Zentveld said fruit and nut farmers in particular were turning to coffee due to issues within their industries, including local processor closures.

"We're now getting quite a few professional farmers who may have been growing macadamias, growing citrus and avocados in Western Australia, sugarcane and peanuts in North Queensland," she said.

She said the industry would benefit from these professionals putting coffee in on scale.

Coffee cherries hang on from the 2025 season during flowering for the 2026 crop.  (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

She said the industry had solid long-term prospects as it moved beyond just import replacement and into export markets.

"They do the maths, and work out that this is a crop that's in demand and should be profitable."