Deforestation free-value chains in Colombia
Problem
Coffee and palm oil are among Colombia’s main agricultural exports to the EU market. Coffee represents about 15% of Colombia’s agricultural GDP and more than 550,000 Colombian families derive their livelihood from its production. Moreover, As the fourth-largest palm oil producer in the world, Colombia grows 580,000 ha. of palm trees, whose fruits are extracted for palm oil by more than 7,200 producers.
With the introduction of EU regulation 2023/1115 on deforestation-free value chains (EUDR), Colombian coffee and palm oil producers’ livelihoods and food security are threatened by the reduction in income they will face if they won’t be able to keep (or start) exporting their yields. In addition, sustainability and traceability requirements are quickly becoming stricter, while being requested for an increasing number of agricultural commodities (due diligence) among which are coffee and palm oil.
Solution
Together with Wageningen Economic Research, Resilience is carrying out this project financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN), in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy in Bogotá. The project is carried out in three phases. In the first phase, we studied the current situation of the two value chains, identified bottlenecks and hotspots, and assessed the expected impact of the EUDR.
In the second phase, we are identifying and assessing potential solutions that will allow growers (and EU importers) to ensure traceability of their products.
In the final phase, we will propose measures so that the impacts of EUDR are minimised, and suggest the introduction of different (combinations of) traceability systems for different production systems and groups.
Bogotá, Colombia
Team members
Timeframe
2023-2024
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