Fairtrade International Launches Digital Platform to Aid Coffee Cooperatives with EUDR Compliance – CoffeeTalk

Fairtrade International has launched Plot Insights, a digital platform aimed at assisting coffee and cocoa cooperatives in managing, analyzing, and securely sharing geolocation data in light of increasing due diligence requirements, specifically the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The EUDR mandates that companies ensure their products are deforestation-free before entering the European market, with compliance dates set for December 30, 2026, for most businesses, and June 30, 2027, for micro and small enterprises.

This launch represents a significant advancement towards a secure, consent-based approach to geolocation data management, enabling cooperatives to maintain ownership and control over their data while facilitating streamlined sharing with trading partners. Under the EUDR, importers must have geolocation data for every plot supplying seven products, including coffee and cocoa.

Brenda Mariana Huerta García, Senior Advisor for Climate & Environment at Fairtrade International, highlighted the financial burden on farmers due to new digital tool requirements for mapping farm plots to remain viable suppliers to the European market. Plot Insights offers a no-cost platform for cooperatives to verify their geolocation data quality, receive deforestation risk analyses from Satelligence, and share this data with buyers, aligning with the cooperatives’ business needs and environmental objectives.

Through Plot Insights, cooperatives can upload geolocation data and receive immediate feedback and error visualization, facilitated by Satelligence, which has been a Fairtrade partner since 2023 for monitoring deforestation risks. This includes alerts about deforestation incidents near their coffee and cocoa plots and those located within or adjacent to protected areas. The embedded analysis from Satelligence enhances accessibility and usability for the cooperatives.

The risk analysis generated through the platform allows cooperatives to meet the additional criteria of Fairtrade Standards, which may involve addressing deforestation alerts and planning for education and continued monitoring for plots near protected areas.

Beginning in October, cooperatives will also be able to share geolocation data with European exporters and importers via Fairtrace, Fairtrade’s sales transaction platform. They can select relevant plots and attach the geolocation data—automatically formatted to meet EU requirements—to sales contracts between cooperatives, exporters, and importers. This data can then be downloaded by importers and utilized in their due diligence statements.

Fairtrade’s regional producer networks — Fairtrade Africa, Network of Asia & Pacific Producers (NAPP), and the Latin American and Caribbean Coordinator of Small Producers and Fair Trade Workers (CLAC) — are assisting over 800 certified coffee and cocoa cooperatives in adopting Plot Insights and preparing for the EUDR implementation deadline.

Plot Insights is hosted within Unify, a newly centralized location for Fairtrade’s digital ecosystem that consolidates various individual systems into a single access point. Certified producer organizations are the initial beneficiaries of Unify, with commitments to extend access to certified traders, retailers, and brands sourcing Fairtrade products in the following year.

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