On 13 April, National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), JDE Peet’s, and Enveritas announced that they had entered an agreement to protect Rwanda’s forests and preserve access to European markets for smallholder coffee farmers in the country.
The new European Union Deforestation Regulation that comes into effect in December 2024 will ban the export of coffee grown on land deforested after 2020 to the EU. As a result of this agreement, NAEB, JDE Peet’s, and Enveritas will take joint action to remediate any coffee that infringes the new regulation.
“Rwanda has been set a daunting task by the new regulation, and we must rise to the challenge in the next few months,” says NAEB CEO Claude Bizimana.
“Rwandan smallholder coffee farmers depend upon selling their coffee into the high-value European market and we must act to protect their livelihoods. Enveritas’ use of AI combined with on the ground verification represents a real breakthrough for coffee nations like Rwanda with large populations of coffee growers and complex supply chains.”
There are almost 400,000 smallholder farmers in Rwanda. Using a combination of high-resolution satellite imagery, machine learning, and teams on the ground, Enveritas will verify that the Rwandan coffee industry meets new regulation.
JDE Peet’s will work with farmers and local partners to remediate any deforested land that has been used to farm coffee. JDE Peet’s Enveritas countrywide solution enables Rwanda’s coffee-producing land to be environmentally managed and assessed as deforestation free.
“We are very pleased to further our deforestation efforts with this new agreement with Rwanda. Deforestation poses fundamental human rights and livelihood risks to local communities. We are committed to continue working with our partners and governments to ensure we can grow coffee responsibly while securing the livelihoods of farmers,” says JDE Peet’s Sustainability Director Nadia Hoarau-Mwaura.
