International Coffee Organization (ICO) joins calls for EUDR postponement

Nogueira hopes the EU might be ‘more open’ to delaying implementation of the regulations | Photo credit: Shelby Murphy Figueroa

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) had added has added pressure on the EU to delay Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is due to come into force on 30 December 2024. 
 

EUDR will require businesses importing products to the EU considered ‘main drivers for deforestation’ – including coffee, cocoa, palm oil, paper and wood – to produce a due diligence statement that imports have not contributed to forest degradation anywhere in the world after 31 December 2020.  

“We can’t meet that date, it is not possible,” ICO Executive Director Vanusia Nogueira told a coffee summit hosted by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Honduras.
 

Nogueira said she hopes that by working with EU leaders, they might be ‘more open’ to delaying implementation of the regulations – but she did not say the length of delay likely to be needed for greater compliance. 
 

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The ICO, whose members represent 98% of all coffee producing nations and 67% of coffee consuming markets, is the latest high-profile coffee body to seek a delay to EUDR.