30 December 2026. From that day, large companies selling coffee into the EU must be able to submit the GPS coordinates of the farm where the beans grew. The EU Deforestation Regulation, EUDR for short. It sounds like a rule from distant Brussels, but it is a rule over the farm. From the side of a small farm, here is what it says and what it means.
For seven commodities, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cattle, soy, rubber and timber, EUDR makes proof that the product is not linked to deforestation after 31 December 2020 a condition of import into the EU. It applies to large companies from 30 December 2026 and to micro and small enterprises from 30 June 2027. It was postponed once, but the European Commission has stated that this schedule is final.
The core is Article 9. The GPS coordinates (polygons) of every plot of land used in production must be included in the due diligence statement and submitted to the EU system. Beans without coordinates cannot exist on paper. So this regulation turns a farm's coordinates into a passport for coffee.
There are about 25 million coffee farmers in the world, and about 80% are smallholders. Several surveys estimate that over 80% of the world's small farms have no digital location data. Cost estimates exist: about US$100,000 to 200,000 for a cooperative of 500 farmers; even after simplification, €25 to 50 per tonne for small supply chains.
Here is the asymmetry of the regulation. The rules are made on the consuming side, but the work and cost of compliance fall upstream, on the layer with the least money. The aim, protecting forests, is right. But if the cost burden of the means stays as it is, an irony could unfold in which the most conscientious small producers quietly leave the market. Support is beginning (a free geolocation tool appeared in June 2026), but it is only the start.
So is EUDR a disaster for a small farm like ours? We think the opposite. Conditionally, it is an opportunity.
The reason is structural. In a conventional supply chain that collects and blends beans from thousands of smallholders, gathering the coordinates of every plot is a nightmare. On a farm under our own management, keeping records per lot and able to trace which farm's beans went into which bag, much of what is demanded is already an extension of daily work. We measured pH and moisture on every lot and kept the records for the sake of taste, but the same system becomes, as it is, the ability to prove origin. For a farm that records, EUDR can be not a barrier to entry but a ticket to the far side of one.
We are building the location data of our farm in Laos as part of this. When it is done, I will report it on this blog.
The EU imports about 40% of the world's coffee. When that market accepts only beans whose origin can be proved, trading practice everywhere is pulled that way. Beans on Japanese shelves are no exception. Between "beans whose maker and origin are known" and "beans that are not", a clear price gap will open from here.
When that happens, will you be able to see the producer beyond your cup? That, I think, is probably the biggest change this regulation leaves in the market.
The EU's deforestation regulation. It requires proof that seven commodities including coffee are not linked to deforestation after the end of 2020 as a condition of import into the EU. It applies to large companies from 30 December 2026 and to micro and small enterprises from 30 June 2027.
Provide the GPS coordinates (polygons) of every plot in production and records that trace origin. Beans without this information cannot be included in a due diligence statement for the EU and are effectively shut out of the EU market.
Yes. The EU is a market that imports about 40% of the world's coffee, and its rules change trading practice worldwide. The price gap between traceable and untraceable beans will gradually reach Japanese shelves too.
For records as an asset see What is the Data Bank; for the era in which origin carries a price, The era in which "who made it, and where" carries a price; for the structure of rising prices, Why coffee got expensive.
Follow this record. New measurements, stories and lot releases from LAOS — delivered to your inbox first.
New records and lot releases, delivered to your inbox first.
New lots, drying updates and field notes — every Friday, in one short letter.