Sustainable global trade increasingly demands accountability for environmental harm, especially deforestation tied to agricultural products like coffee. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), set to take effect in December 2024, requires products entering the EU to be traceable to land that has not been deforested. This presents a challenge for countries like Uganda, whose coffee exorts heavily rely on the EU market.
Despite efforts by both the Ugandan government and major coffee companies like Kyagalanyi, UGACOF and Kawacom to meet EUDR requirements, deforestation continues to rise alongside coffee production. Without full compliance, Uganda risks having its coffee exports banned from the EU, threatening a vital source of foreign income and rural livelihoods. While research has focused on production, marketing, and consumption, little has been done to explore the readiness of smallholder stakeholders to comply with environmental trade regulations. Even fewer studies have examined this in Uganda and none specifically in Kyarumba Sub-County, Kasese District. This study, therefore, seeks to assess how prepared coffee producers and buyers in Kyarumba are to meet EUDR standards.
The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has gained global attention since its adoption in June 2023. The regulation seeks to ensure that key commodities placed on the EU market, such as coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, and timber, are not linked to deforestation or forest degradation. As implementation deadlines draw closer, the question of stakeholder awareness, especially among producers, traders, exporters, and government actors, has emerged as a central concern in the global effort to meet compliance.
Globally, awareness of the EUDR is uneven, with a significant information gap between high income and low income countries. Reports by international think tanks such as the Forest Trends and the World Resources Institute show that multinational companies and large scale commodity traders are generally aware of the EUDR and have started internal processes to align with its traceability requirements.
However, smallholder farmers, local cooperatives, and indigenous communities, especially those operating informally, often remain unaware of the regulation’s implications. The global discourse stresses the need for inclusive communication strategies to ensure that all actors, especially those at the start of supply chains, understand what is at stake. ...Download to read the full article
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