MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU insists cocoa imports must come from deforestation-free areas

Cocoa producers say the Dec. 30 deadline set by the EU to ban products from deforested areas was “unrealistic”

The European Commission (EC) has turned a deaf ear to the Ivory Coast-based International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) to postpone for two years the implementation of regulations requiring that cocoa imported into Europe must not come from deforested plots.

 In a joint statement signed last week, the ICCO said the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which will come into force on December 30, 2024, was “unrealistic in view of the regulation's requirements, which range from geolocation of plots to the establishment of a comprehensive traceability system.” The measure also requires companies to ensure that their products do not come from deforested or degraded land from 2021.

With less than three months to go before the deadline, ICCO claimed that the traceability system was not operational, as the EC had not yet specified all the requirements. Cocoa producers argue that these initiatives would be detrimental, especially for small businesses, so they were asking Brussels for a postponement, like the one already granted to exporters of finished chocolate products. The ICCO also asked for technical and financial support from the EU to mitigate the impact of the new regulations. In addition to cocoa, the new rules also apply to palm oil, beef cattle, soybeans, coffee, timber and rubber and its by-products.

This month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would push for a postponement until doubts raised by the German newspaper industry, which is heavily dependent on paper (a wood derivative) and foresees unmanageable bureaucratic hurdles.

Meanwhile, Brazil, one of the EU's main suppliers of several of the affected raw materials, wrote to the European Commission this month to ask for the suspension of the regulation and for the EU to reconsider its overall approach to combating deforestation.

Despite all this, the EC stated last week that the Dec. 30 deadline for implementing the EUDR remained in place. “The Commission continues to work intensively on preparing the ground for the implementation of this regulation,” said EU spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz.