Kenyan farmers and small exporters shipping coffee, tea and other agricultural commodities to Europe have been handed a reprieve after the European Commission extended the compliance timeline for smaller firms under the new anti-deforestation law by one year.
Exporters of agricultural products in Kenya, who heavily rely on the European market, have been under pressure to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which was initially set to take effect by the end of this year.
The rules require traders and farmers targeting the EU market to prove that their commodities were not produced on deforested land, a process demanding precise digital geolocations of every farm and traceable evidence accompanying exports.
On Tuesday, the EU’s executive arm introduced new measures extending the compliance deadline for micro and small firms to December 2026, in an effort to ease the anticipated strain on its technology systems once the main deadline takes effect later this year.
“This approach provides certainty and stability, streamlining the tracking process for micro and small producers who, while individually posing little risk, collectively provide critical data for maintaining overall traceability,” said Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice president.
The extension will apply only to companies with an annual turnover below £10 million (Sh1.5 billion), while larger firms must still comply by the end of this year.
While this applies to only micro and small firms by EU standards, many medium and large firms in Kenya can still fit into this category.
Under the EUDR, exporters to the EU market must prove that the cultivation of their commodities has not contributed to deforestation, while companies importing or purchasing such products in Europe are required to submit due diligence statements showing that they have verified their suppliers’ compliance.
The regulation covers products such as coffee, tea, leather, hides, timber, and wood products, which are all major Kenyan exports.
Nearly 60 percent of Kenya’s coffee and tea, the country’s top foreign-exchange earners, is sold in the EU, much of it produced by smallholder farmers who are directly affected by the new rules.
The deforestation rules, introduced in June 2023, had originally set a compliance deadline for December 2024, before being extended to the end of 2025.
The latest move adds another year for smaller enterprises, offering much-needed relief as traders and governments adjust to the stringent traceability requirements.
Experts have welcomed the revised timeline, calling it a balanced move that maintains the regulation’s environmental intent while recognising the burden on small producers.
“While no tampering would have been preferable, this approach is far better than delaying enforcement another year or gutting the regulation, as some had called for,” noted Stientje van Veldhoven, Europe’s Regional Vice President at environmental research charity World Resources Institute (WRI).
The new measures will, however, need formal approval by both the European Council, comprising heads of state and government, and the European Parliament, the bloc’s law-making body, before they take effect.
