Boost for coffee trade as EU defers deforestation rules

Kenyan coffee exporters have been handed more time to meet the European Union tough rules meant to discourage deforestation after the EU Parliament voted to postpone the implementation of the rules by one year.

The EU Parliament voted last Thursday to extend the deadline for compliance with the European Union Deforestation regulation (EUDR) from December 2024 to December 2025.

 The vote was a response to concerns that had been raised by EU member states, non-EU countries, traders and operators that they would not be able to fully comply with the rules if applied next month.

Under the EUDR, the EU will only buy seven agricultural products—coffee, cattle, cocoa, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood products—whose sellers have proven it was not grown on land that was deforested after December 31, 2020. The vote also included amendments to some provisions of the regulation to enhance its compliance once it kicks off.

Following the vote, large operators and traders will be required to meet the requirements of the regulation as of December 30, 2025, whereas micro- and small enterprises would have until June 30, 2026.

 This additional time, said the EU, will help operators around the world to implement the rules smoothly from the start without undermining the objectives of the law.

“In response to concerns raised by EU member states, non-EU countries, traders and operators that they would not be able to fully comply with the rules if applied as of end of 2024, the Commission proposed postponing the application date of the deforestation regulation by one year,” said the EU Parliament in a statement shortly after the vote on Thursday.

“Plenary agreed in October 2024 to deal with the proposal under the urgency procedure —Rule 170(6). Today, it agreed to this postponement as well as other amendments with 371 votes to 240 and 30 abstentions,” it said.

The EU MPs also amended some provisions of the EUDR, particularly the creation of a new category of countries posing “no risk” on deforestation. This category adds to the three existing categories of “low”, “standard” and “high” risk. According to the EU Parliament, countries classified as “no risk” are defined as countries with stable or increasing forest area development.

These countries would face significantly less stringent requirements as there is a negligible or non-existent risk of deforestation. The EU Commission is targeting to complete a benchmarking system by June 30, 2025 that will map countries that will qualify to be listed in that category.

The postponement of the EUDR is a major relief to local coffee exporters who risked losing the EU market, which is its largest, due to low rates of compliance. 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 20222 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 December deadline drew closer, coffee stakeholders, particularly exporters, had raised concern that the country’s coffee exports to the EU were at the risk of being locked out. Further, many farmers still have no information about the new rules, while the cost of compliance is proving high for some especially smallholder farmers.

“This is a huge challenge because the fragmentation of the Kenyan coffee farmers and often the local cooperatives have not even heard that from January 25, 2025, we cannot access the European market if we cannot prove that the coffee has not been grown on recently deforested areas,” said Marten Sievers, the regional managing director for leading coffee buyer Neumann

bambani@ke.nationmedia.com