The European Union’s forest removal base has Ethiopian coffee farmers

Farmers in Africa produce some of the world’s most valuable coffee are in a state of stampede to comply with environmental rules in the new European Union that require them to document the origin of each shipment of beans.

The new measure, which enters into force at the end of this year, is designed to prevent the removal of the forests led by agricultural expansion. To comply, farmers must provide geographical location data to show that their coffee was not planted on the ground as the forests were recently cut.

After December 31, any product cannot lose access to the vast European market.

Europe consumes coffee more than any country or bloc in the world, and experts say the new base, which is officially known as the European Union’s forest removal regulation, is a powerful, potential tool to enhance sustainable agriculture and prevent forest destruction.

But it also represents what some call “green pressure” that imposes heavy burdens on millions of young farmers in developing countries that have contributed less climate change, and test policy makers’ ability to balance the needs of people and the needs of nature.

“Of course, the data is very important to us, but what we say is only that we need support,” said Dijin Dadi, President of the Oromia Union for Cooperative A farmers. “It is very difficult and costly and we have no help.”

Mr. Dadi said that his group, the largest cooperative for coffee farmers in Ethiopia, with more than half a million members in the central part of the country, may have not been able to prepare all its farms by the deadline without additional support.

Coaches have passed the Oromia region for more than a year, collecting coordinates for maps and helping farmers with new technology. As of March, they set 24,000 farms. European officials will verify shipments by examining the current geographical location data versus base satellite images and forest cover maps.

Mr. Dadi said that the cost of maps for one farm was about $ 4.50. The training cost is partially covered by a grant that forms the International Trade Center, a joint United Nations agency and the World Trade Organization that has been created to help poor countries expand trade.

Ethiopia is the best coffee producer in Africa, and crops represent about 35 percent of the country’s revenues. Arbika diversity, smooth and moderate with fruits and walnut notes, originated in the southwestern highlands of the country. More than a third of Ethiopia coffee goes to Europe.

According to a French government report last year, the European Union’s consumption is responsible for 44 per cent of coffee forest removal All over the world. Another report, by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group, found that nearly two million hectares of forest cover was It is replaced by coffee farms Between 2001 and 2025, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru recorded some of the highest forest removal rates in that period.

International leaders In 2021 he pledged at the climate summit In Glasgow to end the removal of forests by 2030, the agreement affirmed the increasing awareness of the role of nature in addressing the climate crisis. The sound forests are a natural store for carbon that cultivates the planet, which makes it outside the atmosphere, where, like carbon dioxide, speeds up the warming by besieging the sun’s heat. When the forests are cleared, these areas turn into greenhouse gases. It also harms the biological diversity of forests and the diversity of her life, by disrupting habitats.

The new European Union base also covers cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and other crops. Coffee shipments can be rejected or confiscated without the appropriate appointment data, and the importer can be fined.

But some experts say that the measure is being implemented without the necessary support for farmers.

The European Union and the major coffee chains should make more effort to help small farmers.

“We all want to prevent the removal of the forests,” said Ms. Kane. “But if you will apply this standard to rural producers, you will have to provide a lot of communication and awareness, you will have to invest in learning how to do things differently so that they are not dropped only from the supply chain.”

Etelle Highonet, Coffee Watch founder, chanted a monitoring set. “This is one of the richest companies in the world,” she said about European coffee chains. “Of course they can do this.”

In an email, Johannes Dengler, the administrative partner of Alois Dallmayr, one of the best known brands in coffee in Germany, admitted that the new rule was a “huge challenge” of Ethiopia. He said that Dalmaire was developing systems to ensure compliance and was “working closely with our partners to find viable solutions.”

The European Union Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security did not respond to the suspension requests. in Press statement on April 15th The bloc said that based on the reactions from the partner countries, it allocated 86 million euros, or about 97 million dollars, to support compliance efforts.

Ethiopian coffee farmers are proud of their high -quality beans, as a result of exceptional types of heritage, high altitudes and traditional agricultural practices.

In the highlands in the southwest of Jimma, farmers such as Zainabo Ebourra say that most farmers follow an unwritten base against tree cutting.

Mr. Ibra, who is selling directly to the informal brokers, said that his farm has not yet been appointed. Most farmers live in his area outside the coffee revenues and cannot withstand unrest or additional expenses. “Life will be difficult,” he said, when the new European base enters into force.

But although the new European Union standards can rearrange the Ethiopian coffee sector, the analysts said, they may not stop sales.

Countries like China provide alternative and less strengthened markets. Ethiopians themselves drink large coffee. Hospitality is incomplete without a coffee party, as it hosts grilled beans, grinding and wine in front of their guests. About half of the annual coffee production in the country remains at home.

But Tsegaye Anebo, which heads Sidama Coffee Union, which represents 70,000 farmers, said that the new market axis will be troubled in the short term. He pointed out that the Sidamo Group in its region, which is characterized by its fruit tones, was preferred in the wealthy Europe. This means installment prices.

He said that giving up the European Union market is not an option.

“We need the European Union,” said Mr. Anebo. “But they also need us because they cannot find our coffee anywhere.”

Munira Abdel -Alamean contributed to the reports.