Coffee Growers Seek To Delay EU Deforestation Requirement

The world’s leading coffee organization is preparing to request that the European Union (EU) delay a requirement that imported coffee cherries must come from areas not linked to deforestation, Gustavo Palencia reported for Reuters.

The rule would ban the sale of coffee, along with cocoa, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber, and cattle, unless companies can prove the products are sourced from areas where forests haven't been recently cut down.

The rule, set to take effect at the end of the year, would ban the sale of coffee, along with cocoa, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber, and cattle, unless companies can prove the products are sourced from areas where forests haven't been recently cut down.

"We can't meet that deadline, it is not possible," said Vanusia Nogueira, director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), in an interview.

The ICO, a UN-affiliated intergovernmental group, represents over 90% of coffee production and more than 60% of global consumption.

Leading coffee producers like Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia are ICO members. "It's a very ambitious deadline," Nogueira noted. "We believe that by working with EU leaders, they might be more open to postponing it."

While she didn’t specify how long the ICO hopes to delay the deadline, Nogueira said that if coffee producers miss the target, the EU will likely "find some solution."