EU deforestation law puts Kerala coffee trade on alert as compliance window narrows

With less than a month left for compliance, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has created significant concern in Kerala’s plantation sector, particularly among coffee growers, who fear that failure to meet the mandate could disrupt exports at a time when global prices are favourable. India has between 3–4 lakh coffee farmers, 99 per cent of whom are small growers, according to the Coffee Board of India. The regulation is especially critical in South India, which contributes nearly 96 per cent of the country’s coffee production, led by Karnataka, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, Wayanad remains the largest producer, with around 60,000 farmers relying heavily on export demand.

The EUDR, which came into force on June 29, 2023, sets a final deadline of December 30, 2025, after which the EU will ban imports of agricultural commodities that cannot be traced to their exact source of origin. Coffee and other products entering the European market must be proven to be deforestation-free and mapped to specific farm-level geolocation through GPS coordinates. Buyers in Europe must be able to identify the farmer and the land from which the beans were sourced, and exporters must certify that the produce does not originate from land deforested after December 31, 2020. Although most Indian coffee plantations were established long before this cutoff, registering lakhs of small, scattered holdings into a central traceability system remains a significant implementation challenge.

During a recent visit to Wayanad, Coffee Board CEO and Secretary Kurma Rao urged growers’ collectives, exporters and NGOs to accelerate onboarding to ensure global traceability. He noted that the Board has launched the India Coffee App, equipped with an integrated EUDR compliance module, enabling farmers to upload documents and geo-coordinates directly. With the deadline approaching, the Coffee Board is conducting mass registration drives across Wayanad, supported by 45 Akshaya Kendras trained to assist farmers in the digital process.

Dr M Karuthamani, Joint Director (Kerala and Tamil Nadu), Coffee Board of India, said Kerala currently leads the country in registrations, with more than 30,000 farmers already enrolled, and emphasised that compliance is essential for obtaining fair prices in the export market. He warned that unregistered growers may struggle to sell their produce competitively and could face difficulty accessing Central government schemes. Several leading exporters—including Biowin, Vanamoolika, Perfecto Natural, and various organic collectives—are supporting the campaign, recognising the urgency of protecting export access.

The EUDR covers a wide range of commodities beyond coffee, including cocoa, palm oil, soy, beef, rubber and wood, along with derivative products such as chocolate, furniture and leather. The regulation is expected to significantly impact exports from countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, which have historically cleared large areas of forest for plantation expansion. For India, the stakes are particularly high: of the 3,83,653 metric tonnes of coffee exported from the country last year, approximately 70 per cent—around 2,70,000 tonnes—went to European markets such as Italy, Belgium and Germany, generating USD 1.286 billion in export value.