State's big task to comply with EU deforestation regulations

A coffee farmer on a farm at Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology in Nyeri. [File, Standard]

Perhaps the biggest task that awaits the incoming Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mutahi Kagwe in the coming year is ensuring that Kenya complies with the European Union (EU) deforestation regulations whose compliance has since been extended.

On December 17, 2024, the European Union Parliament adopted the extension of these regulations, also known as EUDR, citing requests from EU countries, non-EU countries, and businesses.

The regulations are expected to be a game changer in the push for climate change policies as they will affect many markets, especially those that are agricultural based such as Kenya, as they restrict exports of produce or products associated with deforestation.

As such, Kenya and similar markets, need to prove that whatever they are exporting to the EU is not associated with cutting down of trees.

Coffee, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, is a major export to the EU which makes compliance to the EUDR critical.

"The EU accounts for 55 per cent of Kenya's coffee exports, making compliance with these regulations essential to the success of Kenya's coffee sub sector," said the outgoing Cabinet Secretary Andrew Karanja in a statement.

According to the New Kenya Planters Co-operative Union, the coffee sector supports about 800,000 small-scale farmers. These farmers are based primarily in rural areas, where poverty levels are higher, hence low income and education levels.

Smallholders account for 75 per cent of the total acreage of coffee.

While Kenya exports much of its coffee to the EU, it does not feature among the top 10 markets whose largest share of products are subject to the EUDR according to the World Bank.

However, Uganda and Burundi, through coffee exports feature at positions five and six respectively.

The most affected country is Sao Tome and Principe which exports palm oil, and wood to the EU. The EUDR was expected to take effect on December 30, 2024. However, this has been extended to December 30, 2025.

While large operators should have complied by December 30, 2025, micro and small enterprises have until June 30, 2026.

"This additional time is intended to help companies around the world implement the rules more smoothly from the date of application, without undermining the objectives of the law," read a statement from the EU parliament dated December 17, 2024.

In Karanja's statement released back in October 2024, the CS said there was possibility of an extension as these discussions were before the EU Parliament.

He however insisted that despite the then-unconfirmed reports on a possible extension, the government remains steadfast in adhering to the December 30, 2024 schedule.

"Early compliance is critical to securing Kenya's position in the EU and maintaining trust with our trading partners," he said.

He listed some of the measures the government has taken among them a Cabinet memo which is being prepared to inform the country on how far the progress towards EUDR is.

There is also a multi-agency technical committee that has been formed to evaluate Kenya's readiness and develop a comprehensive compliance framework, ground-truthing tests are to be conducted to assess the current status of compliance and EU Technical Support has been requested to help with the verification of the compliance process.

The EUDR originates from data backed by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation that estimates 420 million hectares of forest were lost between 1990 and 2020.