Coffee, palm oil and EU deforestation rules in Colombia
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Where | Colombia |
| When | 2023 to 2025 |
| For | Netherlands Embassy in Bogotá, with Wageningen Social & Economic Research |
| My role | Co-author: literature review and advice |
The EU Deforestation Regulation says coffee and palm oil sold in the EU must not come from land deforested after 2020, and that you have to show where it was grown, down to the plot coordinates. For Colombia, with many smallholder producers and mills that buy from thousands of them, that is a big ask.
Together with Wageningen Social & Economic Research we looked at both value chains. First the current situation and the bottlenecks. Then the options to trace products back to the plot, from satellite monitoring to barcodes, RFID and blockchain. Then what is needed locally so smallholders are not pushed out.
My part was literature review and advice.
The work resulted in sector overviews for coffee and palm oil (2024), a policy brief (December 2024) and the full report Tracing sustainability (January 2025).
Related: Reports on the Research page
