Central America's Coffee Future Hinges on Meeting EU Deforestation Rules with FAO Support
June 01 - 2025
Coffee Geography Magazine
Central America's vital coffee trade faces a significant challenge: complying with the European Union's new deforestation regulation (EUDR) by January 2026. This is critical as the EU is a major market, receiving about a quarter of Guatemala's coffee exports and over half of Honduras's. Crucially, most of this coffee is grown by smallholder farmers. The EUDR mandates that importers ensure products like coffee entering the EU market are not linked to deforestation or forest degradation.
To tackle this pressing issue, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank, supported by Guatemala’s National Coffee Association (Anacafé), convened a workshop in Guatemala City. The goal was to explore technical solutions and identify priority investments to help the Central American coffee sector prepare for the rigorous due diligence requirements imposed on European importers by the EUDR.
The workshop united 65 participants from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, representing both public and private sectors. Attendees included Central American coffee organizations, producer associations, cooperatives, federations, exporters, research institutes, alongside representatives from the European Union, international financial institutions, and UN agencies.
Hans Jansen, Senior Agriculture Economist at the World Bank, highlighted the workshop's value in understanding how the four exporting countries are preparing for the EUDR and how the Bank can support sustainable coffee production and market access. "The obligation to collect and manage information for due diligence – ensuring coffee was legally produced without causing deforestation – will cascade down the supply chain to the smallholder farmers," Jansen explained. He stressed the need for "robust ways for collecting evidence" to secure their continued access to this lucrative market.
Ekaterina Krivonos, FAO Investment Centre Service Chief for Latin America and the Caribbean, added that the event enabled stakeholders to share experiences in identifying practical technical solutions and necessary investments for sustainably grown coffee and transparent market information. "Discussions examined past and future investments," Krivonos noted, "focusing on data accessibility, digital systems, and public-private collaboration needed to generate value chain information for due diligence."
Sessions covered diverse topics, including lessons learned in forest and land use monitoring, traceability systems, and assessing good practices and their costs along the value chain. A key challenge identified is the lack of unified databases. There is limited clarity on how various digital data systems work and interact, how data quality is verified, data ownership, and the extent to which EU importers and authorities will recognize them.
Participants emphasized that increased alignment on tools and methodologies – such as avoiding duplicate georeferencing of plots or agreeing on methods to verify low deforestation risk – could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of due diligence. This reduces deforestation risks while maintaining market access. Discussions underscored the importance of digital system interoperability and promoting digital public infrastructure for streamlined information flows.
The workshop also featured the Team Europe Initiative on Deforestation-free Value Chains, launched by the EU and partners. This initiative supports governments in creating conditions for stronger corporate action to minimize deforestation, reduce value chain risks, and increase private investment. It also assists smallholder farmers in adopting sustainable practices and helps Indigenous and local communities protect their rights.
Public-private partnerships were deemed essential for increasing information transparency and distributing data collection costs along the value chain, with the public sector providing critical guidance, standardization, and public goods.
Klemen Gamboa, Vice Minister of Food and Nutritional Security, stressed the practical demands of compliance: "We know that compliance... demands investment, technology, technical assistance, access to georeferenced information, and above all, articulated action among all stakeholders." He announced Guatemala's upcoming update to its vegetation cover and land use study, which will aid production planning and serve as a reference for the European Green Deal.
Ricardo Andrés Destarac Bardales, President of Anacafé, highlighted their proactive efforts: "Anacafé has been developing tools demonstrating coffee traceability from origin, including data management supported by geospatial analyses... part of a comprehensive strategy aligned with sectoral policies and the Sustainable Development Goals."
Finally, Nestor Javier Meneses, Technical Deputy Manager of the Honduran Coffee Institute, valued the workshop for knowledge exchange: "This workshop greatly assisted us in harmonizing preparatory measures... Honduras has advanced through individual stakeholder efforts, which we must now integrate into a consolidated system fostering confidence in the European market."