Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has assured coffee exporters that the government will comply with European Union Deforestation Regulations, (EUDR) pertaining to coffee exports.
He has also committed to fast-tracking all outstanding activities necessary for compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
“The government has directed relevant agencies, including the Kenya Forest Service, the Kenya Space Agency, the Directorate of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing, and the Coffee Directorate (AFA Kenya), to allocate the required resources and expertise to ensure full compliance by November 30, 2025.” He said
He emphasized that Kenya would not seek an extension to this deadline, highlighting the significant risk of losing up to Ksh90 billion (approximately USD 7 million) in coffee exports.
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Over the past five years, Kenya has exported 122,699 metric tonnes of clean coffee to the EU, which accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the country’s total coffee exports.
Kagwe warned that failing to comply with the EUDR, which takes effect at the end of 2025, could jeopardize a crucial revenue stream and adversely affect over 800,000 farmers.
The EUDR, adopted on April 19, 2023, requires all coffee exported to Europe to be verifiably free from links to deforestation, legally sourced, and traceable to specific geographical locations.
As such, Kenya faces a significant logistical challenge as the EU has been a primary destination for its Arabica beans. The government’s objective is to achieve full compliance before the EU’s enforcement date of December 30, 2025.
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However, this leaves only a few months to establish a traceability system that can track coffee batches back to their origin, ensuring they were not cultivated on recently deforested land.
The EU Commission has stated that these regulations aim to curb global deforestation, often driven by agricultural expansion.
By Brian Ndigo
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