Talking to reporters at an event in London on 9 July, Lavazza Chairman Giuseppe Lavazza called for another postponement.
“We call that the legislation, especially for coffee, be postponed for another year,” he said.
Lavazza highlighted the cocoa industry was better prepared than coffee, as there are fewer producing countries. He went on to say the proposed regulation could potentially be more damaging to the coffee market than President Trump’s tariffs, as countries such as Ethiopia could find it difficult to comply due to clarity around land ownership.
According to Reuters, Lavazza’s views do not align with all big coffee companies. Last week, the world’s largest packaged food maker Nestlé wrote to the European Commission in support of the deforestation rules.
What’s more, on 9 July the European Parliament approved a motion proposed by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alexander Bernhuber asking the Commission to revoke the regulation on 22 May 2025 that required “country benchmarking” outlined in the EUDR.
The term “country benchmarking” refers to the assessment of deforestation risk associated with the production of certain commodities in different countries.
Non-governmental organisation WWF says the vote “represents an irresponsible move against one of the EU’s flagship environmental laws”.
“Parliament seems to be blind to the ongoing climate crisis, putting the EUDR’s credibility and the EU’s climate leadership at risk, and sending the wrong signal at the worst possible time as global deforestation rates spiral out of control,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, Manager, Forests at WWF European Policy Office.
“The European Commission must now stay the course and implement the EUDR – not be distracted by this political posturing.”
First due to take effect in December 2024, EUDR was proposed to end the estimated 10 per cent of global deforestation fuelled by EU consumption. It has since been delayed to December 2025 and will require companies importing goods such as coffee and cocoa in the EU to prove its supply chain doesn’t contribute to the deforestation.
