Eleven mating designs, 6 top-crosses and 5 North Carolina II, were used to estimate narrow sense, broad sense and within-cross heritability of Coffea canephora yield in Côte d'Ivoire. The objective was to predict achievable genetic gains according to different breeding strategies. Narrow sense, broad sense, family and within-cross heritabilities were 0.32, 0.43, 0.83 and 0.22, on average respectively. The percentage of additivity was high (81% on average). A degree of variation was nevertheless observed for estimates over trials. This was found to be mainly due to parent sampling in each trial. By theoretical computation. the minimum number of parents required to obtain optimum precision was found to be around 30. Predicted genetic gains for yield through clonal selection at a selection level of 1% ranged from 7 to 28% over the best hybrid in each trial, suggesting thus clones still interesting for breeders. The consequences for coffee breeding are discussed.