3 tips for coffee exporters to meet EU sustainability demands
Coffee exporters must change how they work to protect the environment and their workers. This article offers exporters three simple tips for complying with the European Union’s (EU) changing sustainability rules.
Tip 1: Ensure compliance with EU Deforestation Requirements (EUDR)
Starting 30December 2025, coffee suppliers must prove their coffee does not come from land where trees were cut down after December 2020. Therefore, you must keep good records and show maps of where your coffee grows.
Some coffee groups are already doing this. In Kenya, coffee farmer cooperatives use a phone app called TerraTrac to map their farms. The app only costs 30 cents per farmer. Many other tools and service providers are available to help you comply. Examples are:
- Beyco;
- Farmforce;
- Frontierra;
- Koltiva;
- Meridia Verify;
- Nadar;
- Satelligence;
- Single.Earth;
- Sourcetrace;
- Taroworks;
- Terra-i+.
Read our news article on 7 tips on how to become EUDR compliant in coffee.
Tip 2: Apply due diligence and reporting systems
The EU created two important new rules to make coffee buyers care for people and the environment better.
The first rule is the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which started in July 2024. CSDDD affects large companies with over 1,000 workers and yearly sales of over 450 million euros. Depending on their size, companies must start following the rules between 2027 and 2029. Some parties in the European Parliament want to downgrade this regulation, so the scope of the CSDDD is still uncertain.
The second rule is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Starting in 2025, companies must report on protecting the environment and treating workers fairly. Smaller companies do not have to follow these rules directly, but they must still provide information to help their bigger business partners by providing information.
Coffee cooperatives selling to Europe must keep good records about how they grow coffee, treat workers, use water and chemicals. You should also track how much pollution you create from farming and transporting coffee. Tracking this correctly enhances your chance of selling your coffee to European buyers, who need this information to show they comply with the new EU rules. Brazil's Sancoffee (a B-corp certified speciality coffee cooperative) monitors and reports its environmental impacts and social metrics through its impact projects.
Tip 3: Ensure ethical labour practices
It is important to pair coffee prices so that farmers can pay farm workers fair wages aligned with local standards. When coffee prices are low, some farmers use children to work on farms because they cannot pay for adult workers.
Starting December 2027, the EU will not allow companies to sell products made with forced labour in Europe. Forced work means making people work against their will or using children in ways that harm their health, education and/or (mental) growth. This rule affects all companies selling coffee in the EU, big or small. Coffee importers must show proof that they make their coffee without forced labour.
To follow these rules, coffee cooperatives need to do several important things:
- Check where workers might be at risk;
- Make clear rules for their suppliers about fair work;
- Train everyone about workers' rights;
- Set up a safe way for workers to report problems;
- Regularly check that suppliers follow the rules.
Learn more
You can find more tips by reading our Tips to go green in the coffee sector and Tips on how to become more socially responsible in the coffee sector.
Amonarmah Consults wrote this news article for CBI.
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