The Conveyor: How to Get Ready for the EUDR w/ Harry Marshall
The European Union (EU) is taking big steps to combat global deforestation.
They are implementing a new regulation called the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) to address the 10% of deforestation the bloc accounts for.
Starting December 2024, businesses using commodities like timber, beef, coffee, and cocoa must trace them back to their origins and ensure they weren’t grown on deforested land.
Failure to comply can result in severe consequences, including financial penalties and product seizures.
So, what can you do to comply with these regulations?
I sat down with Harry Marshall, founder and CEO of OpenAtlas, a supply chain traceability company, to dive deeper into the topic.
OpenAtlas, based in the Netherlands, provides a deforestation monitoring solution that uses satellite imagery and AI to track changes in land use. Their product helps businesses prove compliance with the EUDR.
In this piece, you’ll learn:
About the EUDR,
Harry’s framework to get started today,
How the EUDR could expand its scope in the future,
And more…
PS: OpenAtlas has a ChatGPT plugin called the EUDR Guru that can answer any questions you might have about the regulation.
Let’s dive in. 👇
EUDR - Background and Goals
On April 19, 2023, the European Parliament adopted the EUDR, a groundbreaking law aimed at making sure that products sold in the EU do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation worldwide.
According to the regulations, businesses handling seven key commodities - coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, cattle, rubber, and wood - must prove that their supply chains didn't involve land deforested after 2020, legally or illegally.
This means tracing every coffee bean, beef carcass, and log of wood — along with products like chocolate, tires, and books — back to their exact origins.
Share of deforestation caused by the EU on the seven commodities targeted by the EUDR. (EPRS)
Large companies must comply by December 30, 2024, whereas small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have until June 30, 2025. This regulation applies to any quantity of product, large or small.
From a producer’s perspective, over 55 countries export at least $100 million annually to the EU that will be affected by the EUDR.
The impact on producer businesses will depend on the commodities they ship, who buys them, and their resources to handle farm mapping and compliance paperwork. But Harry believes that smaller farms may face the greatest challenges because they have limited resources to help their EU buyers simplify the compliance process.
Harry Marshall: "Coffee comes from many parts of the world, including Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Although the supply chain for coffee looks similar globally, the details can vary significantly at the endpoint. Different countries and geographies have varying levels of supply chain maturity. In some regions, you find larger plantations owned by corporations, while in others, the supply chain consists of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of smallholder farmers. African coffee, for instance, tends to come from more smallholders, whereas Colombian coffee comes from both smallholders and larger players with huge plantations.
This variation makes it challenging to give general advice to businesses on how to comply with regulations, as each situation is unique. But the maturity of the supply chain greatly influences the steps needed for compliance."
How to Get Started Today
The amount of information on the EUDR website and the details required to comply can seem daunting, especially for SMEs struggling to allocate resources.
So, I asked Harry to help simplify the process for me.
I asked Harry to assume he was a chocolate manufacturer sourcing from a cooperative that works with small and mid-size plantations, and give me a step-by-step guide on how he’d get started today.
🔗 Link to article: https://www.theconveyor.co/p/how-to-get-ready-for-eudr
