Kenyan coffee exporters have five months to prove that their crop was not grown on deforested land.
This is part of new rules by the European Union (EU) for coffee exporters who want to keep supplying their produce to the Europe.
Under new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), kicking in on January 25, 2025, the EU will only buy coffee whose sellers have proven it was not grown on land that was deforested after December 31, 2020.
The EU is the largest buyer of Kenya’s coffee, and it is therefore absolutely crucial for coffee farmers to retain this market.
Why was the EUDR introduced by the EU?
The EUDR promotes consumption of deforestation-free products to vastly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is while assisting the fight against global biodiversity loss. It seeks to ensure that the Europe does not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation.
What is the traceability of coffee?
Traceability refers to the documentation that tracks the movement of certified volumes of coffee throughout the supply chain. Traceability allows buyers of coffee and agricultural produce to ensure that they can follow the flow of a product from the farm to the brand owner, thus guaranteeing its certified origin.
Coffee is just one of seven products that will be subjected to EUDR. The others are cocoa, cattle, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood exporters. However, Kenya is not a major exporter of these other products so it will not be heavily impacted by the regulation.
What should exporters do to comply with EU traceability rules?
Exporters have to ensure that their coffee is traceable. This traceability certification will prove that the land on which they are growing coffee was not deforested recently. Currently, most coffee producers have not certified their coffee. According to the Rainforest Alliance, only between 30-40 percent of producers have certified their coffee.
Who certifies the coffee?
Several independent organisations certify coffee to ensure that it meets the EU’s EUDR. They include the Rainforest Alliance and SGS SA. Coffee exporters can choose their own service provider depending on their needs.
How will the certification be done?
Coffee farmers will collect the geographic coordinates of the plots of land where they grow the crop. These coordinates will then be shared by their certification service provider who will then use the coordinates and run through their database to see whether the plot of land was covered by forest after December 31, 2020. If the verification is successful, the farmer is given a certificate.
Who shoulders the cost of the certification?
Each farmer or cooperative will shoulder the costs of having their coffee certified to meet the EU’s traceability rules. This has been cited as one of the main reasons why the progress of the process remains slow. Some stakeholders have called on coffee buyers to help farmers meet the cost of certification.
Is the certification mandatory?
No. The certification is optional. However, farmers whose coffee is not certified will not be able to sell their produce in the EU. Instead, they can still access other markets such as Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and North America.
No. Farmers must continually prove that their produce is certified. For instance, the Rainforest Alliance requires growers to keep documentation of all their produce.
“The requirements for on-site traceability, including paper-based documentation and other practices for the physical handling of certified volumes, apply to all farm and supply chain certificate holders,” it says.
Why is the EU coffee market important?
Seven out of Kenya’s 10 leading coffee markets are in the EU.
According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), 19.3 percent of Kenya’s coffee was sold to the US in 2022.
