The legislation that was approved in 2022 – and should have come into force at the end of this year but may be delayed by 12 months – works to ensure that raw materials, such as coffee and cocoa, can be traced back to their origins and were grown on deforestation-free land. 

Transparency is nothing new for the Red Ecolsierra, a Fairtrade certified coffee cooperative that was founded in 2001 and now has 250 coffee growing farmers organised in 24 groups. Transparency measures are built into their day-to-day operations such as their open sourcing model that enables their coffee to be traced from farm to customer. In fact, equitable and sustainable farming practices have helped Red Ecolsierra to foster trust and strengthen relationships in their supply chains.

In spite of this proactive approach, smallholder farmer cooperatives face challenges with EUDR readiness, especially when it comes to gathering the geolocation data, said Jennifer Alexandra Valbuena Casalini, Red Ecolsierra’s International Business Director. “This requires a big effort, both from a financial and human resources perspective,” she added.

Valbuena Casalini explained that there is no blanket approach for EUDR readiness - for some farms it’s straightforward but for others it’s a bit more complicated.

For example, members located in isolated areas of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, have found accessibility to be limited. Farms with sloping agricultural land have found gathering geolocation data to be too dangerous, and support from other expensive technologies, like drones, is needed.

The one constant factor in Red Ecolsierra’s EUDR readiness is Fairtrade.

In 2024 Fairtrade updated its Coffee Standard to strengthen deforestation prevention, monitoring, and mitigation, in line with Fairtrade’s longstanding commitment to protect forests with fairness The updated Standard aligns with the EUDR data requirements, including that all farms have recorded geolocation points, and farms larger than four hectares must have polygon maps (using multiple data points to map the perimeter of a farm), guiding cooperatives and their members towards readiness.

And while most of Red Ecolsierra’s members – even those smaller than four hectares – use polygon data because it provides a detailed and accurate representation of the spatial extent and boundaries of the geographic features of farms, it’s not so simple for every farm.  

The fact is that staff have to be trained, as it’s not part of their daily reality, which requires an investment of time and resources.  

Fairtrade producer network in the region, CLAC, has organised workshops and provided guides and tutorials on how to collect and send geolocation data, since cooperatives owning and managing their own data is key for business partnerships and good risk management. They also now have six data analysts on staff to provide hands-on support, which has improved data quality. 

Plus, to help cooperatives analyse data on their members’ farms and their deforestation risks, Fairtrade partnered with nature tech firm Satelligence. The producer organisations provide geolocation data for each of their members’ farm plots. Satelligence’s platform verifies the data and then detects any deforestation activity within members’ boundaries.

It also flags which farms are located near deforestation or protected lands, an important piece of information that contributes to cooperatives’ risk assessments so they know where to focus extra monitoring and prevention efforts. Finally, the system generates reports that cooperatives can use themselves and provide to their current or potential customers. 

According to a recent study, Fairtrade certified farms are in a better position when it comes to protecting forests and complying with EUDR compared to non-certified farms. In fact, the study showed the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Premium provide essential resources for cooperatives and farmers to invest in conservation as well as EUDR-related steps such as geolocation mapping. The Fairtrade Standards require coffee cooperatives to conduct deforestation risk assessments and develop mitigation plans.

Currently, 94 percent of Red Ecolsierra’s members have submitted their data to Fairtrade and have passed initial data quality checks, which means they will soon receive their risk analysis report from Satelligence once the remaining farms’ data are available.   

Fairtrade’s support is important because Red Ecolsierra’s members “feel confident that their data is being handled properly” and it will not be misused for other purposes, Valbuena Casalini added.  This is also thanks to the cooperative’s participation in a pilot project, with one of their buyers, to test a new traceability digital solution being developed by Fairtrade that will enable cooperatives to securely share their geolocation data directly with buyers.  Further, the digital tools strengthen producers’ position as owners of their own data, leveraging it for profit and growth.

Red Ecolsierra is one of more than 550 Fairtrade certified coffee cooperatives preparing for EUDR. Regardless of the upcoming decisions in the European Union about delaying the regulation, Fairtrade is doing its part to support cooperatives in navigating the complexities and continuing to provide high quality and fairly produced coffee to Europe.