Costa Rica plans to meet the EU market and launch “deforestation-free coffee”.

Recently, according to reports from Elmundo in Costa Rica, Costa Rica launched the first batch of “deforestation-free coffee”. This batch of coffee beans was harvested after December 2020, ensuring that no forests were cut down to expand the planting area, which can meet the requirements of the EU EUDR, and this batch of coffee beans has been sold and will be shipped to Italy.

This batch of “deforestation-free coffee” is a pilot program promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Costa Rican Coffee Association (ICAFE). There are a total of 275 bags of this coffee, each bag containing 60 kilograms of coffee beans, which are all produced by producers in Tarrazú.

In June of this year, the EU released the first “zero deforestation bill”, which is also the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). This bill and regulation stipulate that no individual or enterprise can sell products involving deforestation in the EU market, including coffee, cocoa, etc. The bill requires operators to conduct due diligence on the products and trace the origin of the goods they sell to determine that they do not involve deforestation or lead to forest degradation, otherwise they will face a series of penalty measures such as fines, restrictions, or banned exports.

For the first export of Costa Rica’s first batch of deforestation-free coffee this time, the deputy minister of strategic management of the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy stated that this is an example of adapting to climate change. If Costa Rica does not invest in adapting to the climate, it will lose market competitiveness. After all, Costa Rica’s coffee exports are mainly to the United States and EU countries, and coffee exports to the EU account for 38.4% of the total exports.

In addition, the person in charge of the pilot project stated that the cooperation with the Los Santos area in Costa Rica is because the coffee output in this area is the highest in Costa Rica, and the cooperation with the Tarrazú cooperative is because the cooperative is the largest coffee grower cooperative in the country with more than 4,500 producers.

This cooperation is one of the key development projects in Costa Rica, because the coffee industry in the country has been frustrated at present. According to the earlier Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE), due to bad weather and a lack of labor, the coffee production in Costa Rica in the 2023/24 fiscal year will be reduced by 13%, and the export volume will also be reduced. The other is that the supply in other Central American countries is strong, such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Peru, and in these countries, coffee of the same quality can be purchased at a lower price. If you want to increase Costa Rica’s competitiveness, you need to adapt to market changes, so this cooperation is very beneficial to the coffee industry in Costa Rica.