The Rainforest Alliance regrets the agreement reached yesterday between the EU institutions to postpone—yet again—the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) by twelve months and to introduce a further review by April 2026.
Based on the agreement, the new application date for large and medium companies will be 30 December 2026 while micro and small companies get an extra six months to comply with the regulation by 30 June 2027.
As a key tool for preventing products associated with deforestation from entering the European market, the Rainforest Alliance has supported the EUDR from its inception and has stood firm against any changes that could harm its objective. The EUDR is the result of a long process of inaction on tackling deforestation, during which time global rates of tropical forest loss have accelerated.
This new postponement seriously harms the credibility of the EU and its capacity to secure stability and legal certainty for the many businesses which had been anticipating the regulation. Especially the review clause adds to the uncertainty only a few months after the amending regulation is adopted. Many of our certified coffee and cocoa producers and supply chain partners have already dedicated significant resources to support EUDR compliance. Producing countries’ governments have also invested considerable effort in setting up national systems to support producers to remain included in EU supply chains. Today’s agreement discredits all these efforts and offers a reward to the laggards—again – while tropical forests continue to be destroyed.
The Rainforest Alliance stands ready to continue supporting stakeholders in the cocoa and coffee sectors that are willing to make their sectors more sustainable. We have, for example, fast-tracked changes to our certification program in order to support our partners in showing EUDR compliance and will continue working with farmers and companies to help them prepare.
We reiterate our strong support for the EUDR, and we call on companies and legislators to ensure that smallholder farmers are supported to adapt to the EUDR instead of constantly creating confusion and instability.
The fight to protect the world’s forests is at the very heart of the Rainforest Alliance’s mission. Together with farmers and forest communities, scientists, governments, companies, and citizens, we are working diligently in more than 60 countries to cultivate sustainable, rural economies—the most widely proven strategy to keep our forests standing.
