Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) in partnership with aBi, met and updated coffee value chain actors on Wednesday 21st August 2024 on ongoing efforts to comply with the European Union Regulation for Deforestation-free Products (EUDR).
The EUDR aims to ensure supply chains remain free from products that cause deforestation or forest degradation. The regulation will be implemented retrospectively and commodities like coffee, cocoa, cattle, palm oil, soy, timber and rubber as well as derived products (such as beef, furniture, or chocolate) that were planted on deforested land from 2021 will not have access to the EU market.
“The regulation requires that exporters of commodities such as coffee, cocoa, and their derivatives submit specific documents to export to the EU market. Coffee planted on deforested land after December 2020 will not access the EU market,” Dr. Gerald Kyalo, Director Development Services, UCDA, noted.
To beat the December 2024 deadline, UCDA is working with various partners and stakeholders including International Trade Centre (ITC), aBi Development, Uganda Coffee Federation, Café Africa, and UNDP, as well as exporters, traders, farmers, and Government ministries and agencies to ensure industrywide EUDR compliance.
“We commend the partners who have committed time and funds towards the design and implementation of the National Action Plan for compliance with the EUDR and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). This plan was developed through a collaborative effort that involved the private sector, public institutions, and civil society organisations. We appreciate the members of the task force co-chaired by UCDA which has spearheaded this initiative,” Dr. Kyalo added.
Since the plan was validated in March this year, several other meetings have been held, including a stakeholder meeting to mobilise funding to implement it. The first support came from the Government of Uganda allocation of UGX 13.9 billion, in the 2024/25 budget, to establish the National Traceability System.
Additional funding from aBi and the UNDP will focus on setting up a coordination unit to manage the EUDR compliance process, implementation of a stakeholders’ awareness campaign, and farmer registration.
According to Moses Nyabila, CEO of aBi Development Ltd, the organisation has allocated UGX 16 billion to the coffee sub-sector for EUDR compliance activities.
“Our target is to have 1 million farmers registered and geo-located by the end of the year. We want to ensure that farmers continue to trade and the quality of the coffee reflects in the price they get from buyers,” Nyabila said.
During the meeting, UCDA congratulated all the stakeholders on the excellent export performance in July 2024. Coffee exports in July 2024 amounted to 821,593 60kg bags worth US$ 210.48 million. This is the highest export figure in Uganda’s history.
Coffee remains one of the leading foreign exchange earners, and exports for the last twelve months (August 2023-July 2024) totaled 6.3 million 60kg bags worth US$ 1.25 billion.