KAMPALA – Gov’t is to Spend Shs35bn on Registration of Coffee Farmers as Uganda Takes Action to Comply with EUDR Requirements, but however politicians and local leaders are to some extent misleading the population and coffee farmers that the move is aimed at for government monopolizing coffee growing business and it is claimed that without a license a person will not be allowed to grow coffee. Still, it is biased that registration of coffee farmers by assigning unique identifiers and geolocations shall create peculiar interest in land ownership by the usual key suspects in land grabbing. Worth mentioning, the exercise came interforce during the UCDA nationalization debate and coffee farmers are still recovering from the coffee debate. Once government forces coffee farmers to register, there will automatic ressentiment and therefore, the government must use educative approach for the coffee farmers to embrace the registration exercise and any thing good shall be appreciated. The coffee farmers are heavily cautioned not to politicize registration exercise and hence limit the Ugandan coffee in competing globally.
The 4C is an independent, stakeholder-driven, internationally recognized certification system for the entire coffee sector, aiming at anchoring sustainability in coffee supply chains across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The 4C system is a voluntary certification scheme, which provides assurance towards sustainability goals for companies to use for their responsible sourcing and communication to the consumer market. However, beyond voluntary certification and assurance systems, the European Union (EU) now requires mandatory and specific information to import coffee and other commodities e.g. cocoa to or export from the EU market. According to the EU Commission, deforestation and forest degradation are occurring at an alarming rate, aggravating climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
The main driver of deforestation and forest degradation is the expansion of agricultural land to produce commodities such as cattle, wood, palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, or natural rubber. A growing world population is expected to increase demand for agricultural land and put additional pressure on forests, amplified by the effects of climate change. The EU is a relevant consumer of commodities associated with deforestation and forest degradation. Consequently, the EU with the newly developed EUDR aims to reduce its negative footprint by avoiding trades of products related to deforestation and degradation, requiring additional information from trade operators. EU Regulation on deforestation-free products is aimed at deforestation free, produce in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production and products are covered by a due diligence statement.
To prove the compliance with the above-mentioned requirements, operators, i.e., companies that place relevant commodities on or export from the EU market, shall exercise due diligence. This includes the collection of information on the product, on the geolocation of plots of land where produced, on the deforestation-free production, on the legality of production of the commodity, as well as risk assessment measures and risk mitigation measures. Ensuring the full traceability of commodities back to the plot of land of production and the deforestation-free production requires segregation from commodities of unknown origin or non-deforestation-free commodities. Based on the due diligence exercised, operators shall submit a due diligence statement to the information system run by the EU Commission.
By making the due diligence statement available to competent authorities, the operator assumes responsibility for the compliance of the relevant product with the requirements of the EUDR. Operators shall keep records of due diligence statements and related information for five years from the date the statement is made available to the information system. Due diligence statements and corresponding information are subject to checks on compliance by the national competent authorities which can result in further in-depth analysis, requirements for corrective actions or penalties in case of non-compliance.
The EUDR entered into force on the 29th of June 2023 and will be applied as of the 30th of December 2024, requiring EU importing and exporting operators to have a due diligence system in place. Operators are then obliged to follow the EUDR requirements and to be ready to provide information about the entire supply chain for coffee from the moment of EU-import back to its origin, once requested by the member state authority. Operators categorized as SMEs are granted an additional 6-month transition period and need to comply from 30th of June 2025 with the EUDR requirements. Therefore, 4C certified coffee, which is being exported from a producing country and potentially imported into the EU, shall be subjected to this regulation. Therefore, all coffee plots which are part of a certified 4C Unit, the respective Business Partners (BPs), being the Producers and Service Providers of the 4C Unit, as well as the SMEs shall comply.
In conclusion, Cooperatives whose main activity is coffee growing and export should pick interest and invest into training, building systems and creating awareness to coffee farmers on traceability requirement. But still, Cooperatives can easily mobilize their farmers with high degree of transparency and voluntarism and Investing into the Environmental and social governance frameworks shall create sustainable growth while protecting our environment for the benefit of the current and the future generation. Finally, since the EU has a good market for Ugandan coffee, as, it consumes over 60% of annual coffee production, the traceability clause should be welcomed in good faith.
Denis Tukahikaho is holder of a PhD in environmental Management & Economics, he is a PhD student in International Relations and Diplomacy – AI University Hawaii USA, holds a Master of oil and gas law, Executive MBA, Bachelors of Business Administration (Banking & Finance) and Diploma in business Management and Economics.
