AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Meridia is launching Verify, the most comprehensive solution for reducing EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) non-compliance risks on the market. The launch follows a two-year development period and is the product of Meridia’s ten years of deep field experience, real-world insights and local knowledge.
To support EUDR compliance, Verify assesses field and physical flow data across farms and commodities covering data quality, deforestation risk, legality (including compliance with local laws), and traceability. Verify also integrates real-time data verification and compliance validation into procurement cycles, future-proofing data quality. The tool currently covers cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, and rubber, with more commodities, origins and tests planned for the future.
“We are excited to officially launch Verify – a big milestone we have worked towards for two years! Verify clients can process datasets to generate risk scores and results in real-time for data quality, deforestation, traceability and legality aspects. By integrating Verify into their procurement cycles, companies can reduce commercial and reputational risk, minimise supply chain disruption, and accelerate evidence-based decision-making for strategic sourcing, procurement, and trade.” – Thomas Vaassen, CEO, Meridia.
Data verification is an essential step towards EUDR compliance
A significant amount of company commodity and sourcing field data is inaccurate, despite best efforts to map global supply chains². This inaccurate field data leaves many operators and traders doing business in the EU at risk of importing illegal and non-compliant products under the EUDR.
Verify significantly lowers the risks of EUDR non-compliance by deploying 50+ tests for field and physical flow data quality. Each test results in a score ranging from low risk to critical risk of non-compliance, with a single overall score provided for each farm, allowing for an easy comparison of compliance risks. These tests are aligned with source articles from the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and focus on four key areas across 35+ origins.
The test results can be customised and sorted by preference, or delivered in a detailed risk report with actionable recommendations. With its full launch, Verify is now available under a subscription model, either on-platform or via an API.
“To comply with the EUDR, we must ensure that our cocoa is fully traceable back to a specific farmer and a specific farm, and that farm must be fully polygon mapped to prove that the cocoa does not originate from land which was deforested after December 2020. Meridia Verify helps us to confidently verify our field data, ensuring compliance with these new regulations and safeguarding our operations in an increasingly regulated landscape.” – Bart Draaijer, Head of Sustainable Cocoa – ETG | Beyond Beans
Verify supports the ICE CoT platform
Meridia has also collaborated with ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA) in its launch of the ICE Commodity Traceability Service (ICE CoT), a technology platform designed to facilitate the continued frictionless trade of physical cocoa and coffee by automating the process of submitting, storing, validation testing and sharing of due diligence information required by the EUDR.
“The ICE CoT data validation methodologies have been developed based on Meridia Verify and form a crucial component of IBA’s platform,” said Clive de Ruig, President of IBA. “High-quality data is critical to passing the ICE CoT tests, and Meridia Verify will be of significant help to customers in preparing their due diligence data to meet ICE CoT’s rigorous standards of data governance.”
¹ Report: Cooperatives and the state of field data quality for EUDR compliance, Results of the Cavally Cocoa Farm Data Study (September 2022/November 2023)
