African countries have rejected claims of unpreparedness for the EU’s new anti-deforestation law, amid increasing pushback from the bloc’s agrifood lobby.
Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producers and two of the countries set to be most affected by Brussels’ strict new regulations, are stepping up efforts in preparation for the EU’s anti-deforestation law (EUDR), which will come into full effect at the end of December this year.
The EUDR will require players across the entire supply chains of so-called “at-risk” commodities – like cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soy – to prove their goods have not come from illegally deforested land.
This will apply to all companies trading goods in and out of the EU, therefore affecting an array of British fmcg businesses who either trade with the bloc or whose imports travel through the continent to get to the UK.
Companies must be able to trace their raw materials to farm level, using a complex system of traceability that includes satellite imagery and geolocation markers.
Ghana has now announced its national traceability system – which will track cocoa beans from the farm where they are produced to the port of shipment, and which will support farmers in producing the EU’s required paperwork – will be fully operational by October 2024.
The Ghanaian cocoa regulator, COCOBOD, told cocoa trading companies earlier this month they would be responsible for providing the smartphones and internet connectivity to cocoa buyers and depot managers that will be needed for the system to work, in a letter seen by The Grocer.
“Amid fears – often stated by companies who themselves have the biggest power to fix the problem – that EUDR compliance costs will be passed on to smallholders, it is interesting to see that, in the reality of a specific sector and country, systems are being designed to put compliance costs on the shoulders of companies,” said Julia Christian, forests and agriculture campaigner at environmental group Fern.
Read more: The deforestation regulation clock is ticking for food and drink
Meanwhile, in Ivory Coast, the government too is accelerating the implementation of its long-awaited national cocoa traceability system in response to the EU’s new requirements.
This comes amid pushback from some of the EU’s top ministers and farming bodies, including Austria’s agriculture minister Norbert Totschnig, as well as farmers’ group Copa-Cogeca.
They are among those who have called for a delay to the December deadline, often citing unpreparedness among European companies and big producer countries, and warning of the costs to their networks of smallholders.
But last week, a group of 120 Ghanaian and Ivorian civil society organisations wrote a letter to EU policymakers, expressing their “deep concerns” at media reports about member states trying to delay the EUDR.
“This has caused confusion about the efforts and investments we are making, both as producers and as a country, to be ready for the implementation of the EUFR at the end of 2024,” the letter said.
“We would like to reiterate our firm and unequivocal support for the EUDR. In the face of attempts to call it into question, we are calling for it to be implemented in accordance with the initial timetable set out when the regulation was adopted.
“We consider this regulation to be a key element in achieving the goal of sustainable and fair supply chains.”
The groups said they were “not unaware of the challenges involved in setting up robust traceability systems with geolocation, particularly for small farm plots”, but that smallholders were “actively preparing” for the legislation.
Signatory Bakary Traoré, co-leader of the Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa, added: “Those trying to use the challenges we face implementing the EUDR in Cote d’Ivoire to sabotage the law are ignoring the reality on the ground.
Read more: A fifth of UK businesses still not ready for EU’s strict anti-deforestation laws
“For the past three years, the consensus among cocoa farmers’ co-operatives and NGOs has been largely positive.
“Many farmers see it as an opportunity to sell their cocoa at a guaranteed price. As such, it can help lift them out of the poverty that blights many of their lives.
“In the debate over the pushback against the law, the voices of those who support it should not be lost.”
In a separate open letter addressed to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in April this year, over 170 NGOs – including Earthsight, Greenpeace and WWF – also urged her to reject pushes for postponement of the EUDR.
No comments yet