Kenya’s coffee harvested from deforested land will not be sold in the European Union (EU) from the end of this year as part of new laws by the economic bloc meant to reduce deforestation globally.
The new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was passed by the European Parliament and European Council in May last year and takes effect on December 30.
Under the EUDR, European companies dealing in coffee, soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and rubber in the EU market must prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
“By promoting the consumption of ‘deforestation-free’ products and reducing the EU’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation, the new Regulation is expected to bring down greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss,” said the EU.
The regulation requires operators and traders that are not small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to collect geographic coordinates of land where the commodities were produced.
According to the EU Commission, traceability to the land is necessary to demonstrate that there is no deforestation occurring on a specific location.
This is set to put tighter checks on Kenya’s coffee by buyers to ensure the commodity they buy locally is not grown on deforested land.
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 followed by Germany (14.5 percent), Belgium (12.4 percent), South Korea (9.11 percent), Switzerland (6.9 percent and Sweden (6.61 percent).
As the clock ticks towards implementation of the EUDR, coffee farmers want the government to accelerate the mapping of geographical coordinates of land under coffee as required by the EU.
