Tegucigalpa, Honduras: The world’s leading coffee organization plans to formally request that the European Union postpone its requirement for imported coffee beans to originate from areas free of deforestation, the group’s director announced on Wednesday.
Set to take effect at the end of the year, this regulation would prohibit the sale of coffee, along with cocoa, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber, and cattle, unless companies can demonstrate that these products come from regions where forests have not been cleared in recent years.
“We can’t meet that date; it is not possible,” said Vanusia Nogueira, director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), in an interview. The ICO, affiliated with the United Nations, represents over 90% of global coffee production and more than 60% of consumption, with major coffee-producing nations like Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia as member countries.
“It’s a very ambitious deadline,” Nogueira added. “We believe that by working with EU leaders, they might be more open to postponing that date.” However, she did not specify how long the ICO hopes to delay the requirement.
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When asked about the potential consequences if coffee producers fail to meet the deadline, Nogueira expressed confidence that the EU “will find some solution.” She emphasized, “The European people like coffee very much… they will not be left without coffee.”
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Nogueira made her remarks at a coffee summit organized by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Tegucigalpa. According to Honduran Deputy Minister of Coffee Growing Carlos Murillo, the nearly three dozen member nations of CELAC are expected to conclude the summit with a declaration urging the EU to delay the deforestation requirement.
