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Why EU set tough conditions to buy our coffee
Men cut down trees to find space for growing coffee. PHOTO/Michael J Ssali
What you need to know:
Approximately 60 percent of Uganda’s coffee is shipped to the European Union (EU) member states, including Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, making the EU the primary export market for Ugandan coffee.
As the coffee crop gains more significance in the economic development of the country more and more attention is being given to the coffee production industry.
Due to the high prices paid to the farmers for the crop in the just concluded harvest season there is marked increased interest among farmers in planting more coffee.
Felling trees
Virgin land is being cleared to create space for growing the crop. It has also been observed in some areas that people are cutting down trees and forests to grow coffee, which is not really recommended in today’s times of climate change mitigation. All people, especially the farmers are expected to be planting more trees and protecting forests, instead of destroying the existing ones.
Tricky regulation
It is the deforestation trend that led to the European parliament in December 2022 approving a new regulation referred to as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
It bans the importation into Europe of products including coffee obtained after cutting down forests and mindless destruction of trees. Europe will only buy deforestation-free products and it will ensure that all supply chains remain free from products that cause deforestation.
Europe apparently wants to use the new regulation to prove that it is committed to climate change mitigation. The EU appears set to put the EUDR into force by December 31, 2024 and now the government and the farmers are working towards fulfillment of the European Union’s conditions.
Training farmers
In different parts of the country coffee farmers and government agents have been engaged in seminars and consultative meetings seeking to get the coffee growers and their gardens registered.
Leaders of coffee farmers’ organisations gathered in Masaka District on Wednesday to exchange ideas about how far they had gone in their efforts to comply with the conditions set by the European Union regarding deforestation regulation.
The meeting was hosted by both Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTEFONE) and Uganda Consortium on Corporate Accountability (UCCA). The key speaker at the event was Jonathan Lubega, Programme Officer, Agricultural Trade for Rural Transformation, Southern and East Africa Trade Information and Negotiation Institute (SEATINI) Uganda.
In his presentation Lubega revealed that compliance with the EUDR is important because all countries are in the battle against the effects of climate change.
Approximately 60 percent of Uganda’s coffee is shipped to the European Union (EU) member states, including Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, making the EU the primary export market for Ugandan coffee. About 35 percent of the coffee is exported to other countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Morocco.
The EUDR arrived when Uganda had just passed the Uganda Coffee Act 2021 which seeks to streamline coffee production by registering all farmers and capturing their geographical location. For several coffee farmers, cooperative society’s coffee from each member’s farm can be traced.
The National Coffee Act, 2021 also provides for the establishment of a national register for coffee value chain actors.
“Even if you planted the tree yourself and you want to harvest it by cutting it down, there is a procedure to follow you should not just cut it down without planting perhaps two or more trees. It is like the goat or cow that you keep. When you decide to slaughter it, local chiefs must be informed, at least the area vet officer should confirm that it is fit for human consumption,” Lwengo District Principal Agriculture Officer, Peter Bamwesigye, told the participants.
His view is that farmers should not be too quick to cut down trees because they planted the trees and they belong to them.
Anthony Ssekaddu, Business Manager of Kibinge Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society has said, “We already have a register for all our members and we have been emphasising to all of them not to destroy forests and wetlands. Our farmers know each other and they monitor one another.”
Joseph Kasekende, a large scale coffee farmer in Kyotera District and an agricultural services extension officer in Rakai District says, “I am not just a coffee farmer, I am also an agro-ecologist. It is the reason that you see so many trees in my coffee farm.”
Technology
Lubega also made it clear that it is possible now for coffee buyers in Europe to follow by satellite what the farmers are doing on their farms and it is possible to know if they have been cutting down forests before planting the coffee. The coffee from such farms will be rejected.
Joseph Nkandu, executive director of the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) told Seeds of Gold, “It all goes back to what in NUCAFE we call Farmer Coffee Ownership Model. We cannot own the crop if we are not all registered. That threat by the European Union can only worry those farmers that are not members of cooperative societies. For us in NUCAFE registration of members has always been our practice. We are always emphasising natural environment preservation. That is why we have trees growing all around and within the compound of our coffee processing factory at Namanve.”
According to Lubega all exporters to Europe will have to prove compliance with local legislation in production and a due diligence statement covering the entire coffee supply chain indicating no more than a negligible risk of non-compliance.
The exporters will be required to provide geographic coordinates of production plots to ensure traceability and to verify deforestation free practices.
The due diligence statement must contain origin details including geo-location, and data, for all plots with different formats, various plot sizes, polygons for plots over 4 hectares; single GPS points for smaller plots.
Every coffee batch exported to the EU market must adhere to traceability standards, necessitating operators to trace each batch back to its origin.
Regulation
The EU appears set to put the EUDR into force by December 31, 2024 and now the government and the farmers are working towards fulfillment of the European Union’s conditions.
