By Grace Samuel
Kenyan coffee stakeholders face a pressing challenge: ensuring compliance with the EU’s new Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) within the next eight months.
This regulation is designed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss by addressing deforestation, largely driven by agricultural expansion.
Failure to meet the new regulations by December 30, 2024, could potentially exclude Kenyan coffee farmers from their primary export market, as Europe currently accounts for 55% of Kenya’s coffee exports, impacting the livelihoods of numerous growers.
Under the EUDR, coffee produced on land classified as forest as of 2020 cannot be imported into the European Union. This restriction also extends to cocoa, beef, palm oil, soy, wood, and rubber.
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Compliance necessitates the ability to trace the specific location of coffee producers easily. Countries will be categorized into high, medium, and low-risk levels based on their deforestation rates for agricultural purposes.
To facilitate compliance, a multi-agency technical team will conduct geo-mapping to accurately pinpoint the locations of Kenyan coffee farms.
Efforts are underway to educate farmers about the new EU directive through initiatives led by the Nairobi Coffee Exchange and the Digital Integration of Agricultural Supply Chains Alliance, gathering data on afforestation and deforestation rates.
Additional sources of information for farmers regarding the EUDR include county government agricultural offices and the Agriculture and Food Authority Coffee Directorate.
Achieving compliance with the EUDR will demand concerted efforts from all stakeholders to safeguard Kenya’s coffee industry, which serves as the primary source of income for approximately 1.5 million rural households. Notably, national coffee production in 2021/22 reached 51,853 metric tons, valued at $98.56 million.
