MILAN – The European Coffee Federation (ECF) has addressed a letter to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asking the European institutions to reconsider the timing of application of the EUDR, which could put at risk the entire supply chain of the 27 countries of the Union.
The European Union is the largest coffee market in the world, with 49,128,220 bags imported in 2022 and consumption estimated, for the same year, at approximately 42.33 million bags (source: European Coffee Report – ECF).
The ECF includes both national associations and some of the leading companies in the supply chain, whose overall imports reach a volume of 2.5 million tonnes of coffee grown by 12.5 million of growers in 60 countries.
Under the EUDR, any operator or trader who places commodities like soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee, rubber commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
If implemented on Dec. 30 as planned, “the disruptions will be shattering, not least for the millions of smallholder producers for whom the EU is a significant marketplace,” the European Coffee Federation said in the letter, quoted by Bloomberg News.
Some 80% of coffee farmers haven’t mapped their plots and wouldn’t know how to properly participate in the exercise, it said citing a preliminary survey from the International Coffee Organization.
“The implementation and the timeframe are proving to be a challenge not only for the entire coffee sector and related stakeholders, but also for the EU competent authorities,” the Brussels-based trade association also stated in the letter.
However, the “ECF and its members remain fully committed to the spirit of the EUDR and will continue to work to ensure that the overall objective set out by the European Commission is met by all, when the time is right, without the numerous unintended consequences,” the letter also reads, according to Reuters.
