STiR coffee and tea magazine

28 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) By Mariana Proença E urope's Green Deal is a big deal for the hundreds of millions of farmers, co- operatives, and companies around the world that sell agricultural goods into the European Union. Under the proposed legislation, announced on December 6, any company in the EU market that imports, sells, or exports certain commodities like palm oil, cocoa, soy, beef, and coffee is subject to fine if they lack documentation that the goods were not produced on land deforested after December 2020. The law aims to reduce agricul- ture-related loss and degradation of forests to protect the climate, environment, and biodiversity. Brazil is categorized as one of the countries deemed as "high risk" under the law, due mostly to illegal clearing of forest to expand the farming of soy and cattle. The proposal's announcement prompted concern and discussion in Brazil's coffee sector. Europe is Brazilian coffee's number one market abroad, taking 45% of the sector's exports in 2022, according to Brazilian Coffee Exporter's Council (CaCafé). The law will impose higher costs on producers, and smallholder farms might es- pecially be affected. Now they will need to upload traceability data for the coffee they grow, e.g., GPS coordinates, which will be mapped against satellite photos of farms and forests. This record-keeping burden will add to a growing list of problems con- fronting coffee farmers: inflation, price volatility, adverse weather events, labor short- ages, and so on. At Cachoeira Farm, in Campo das Vertentes, Minas Gerais State, plots under cultivation of coffee are fringed by forested land that must be kept wild under Brazil's Legal Reserve Area law. Photo by K. J. Yeung, courtesy of RGC Coffee. As the world's largest coffee exporter and a hotspot for defor- estation, Brazil has much at stake in Europe's coming ban on imports linked to habitat loss. But no one is panicking. Brazil's Coffee Sector Gears Up for EU Green Deal A significant proportion of Brazil's coffee production is validated under various certification schemes, helping ease the task of traceability. Photo by K. J. Yeung, courtesy of RGC Coffee.

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