Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, known as the EUDR, prohibits placing on the European market — or exporting from it — products linked to deforestation. Coffee is among the commodities covered, alongside cocoa, soy, palm oil, rubber, wood and cattle. After two postponements, the latest through Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, application was set for 30 December 2026 for medium and large operators, and 30 June 2027 for micro and small enterprises.
The requirement has three parts. The coffee cannot come from land deforested after 31 December 2020; it must have been produced in accordance with the legislation of the country of origin; and the operator placing it on the European market must submit a due diligence statement, with the geolocation of every plot of land the lot came from.
In practice, the weight falls on traceability. An export lot blending coffee from many producers must carry the location of all of them. For exporters that buy through local intermediaries, this means reorganising the purchasing chain so that the information reaches the shipment.
For Brazil, the world's largest exporter, the change is not marginal. European buyers will ask, alongside sample and specification, for georeferenced proof of origin. Those who have already organised this information gain a concrete commercial advantage; those who have not risk being shut out of part of the market.
If you are stating interest in selling coffee bound for Europe, it is worth saying from the first contact whether the lot is traceable to the plot of production. It is information that changes how the offer is read — and that, from December, the buyer will ask for anyway.
This text describes the timetable in force on the date of publication. The regulation has been amended more than once; the reference source is the European Commission's official page.