As the timeline for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) advances, African coffee stakeholders face complex challenges—but also a unique opportunity to strengthen systems and ensure the inclusion of smallholder farmers.
The EUDR Learning Community for Africa is a practitioner-driven platform for peer exchange and practical problem-solving focused on geolocation, traceability, legality, data governance, and cost-effective compliance.
The Community brings together government institutions, private sector actors, service providers, producer organizations, and technical experts from across Africa to share knowledge, tools, and experiences that support coffee supply chains in demonstrating compliance with EUDR requirements, including deforestation-free production and adherence to relevant legal frameworks.
Through regular virtual events, in-person meetings, and technical exchanges, members explore topics such as legal compliance, traceability systems, deforestation monitoring, risk assessment and mapping, farm registries, data governance, and smallholder inclusion. By learning from one another and collaborating on practical solutions, participants contribute to building more transparent, efficient, and inclusive compliance systems across the African coffee sector.
The Community promotes shared governance models, open-access traceability systems, deforestation risk analysis, farm registry tools, and inclusive collaboration mechanisms to ensure that progress toward EUDR compliance is coordinated, efficient, and accessible to all actors across the coffee value chain.
The initiative is led by the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA), with the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) providing coordination and technical support. It is further supported by the International Coffee Organization (ICO) and the Global Coffee Platform (GCP), whose collaboration helps strengthen knowledge sharing, technical alignment, and regional capacity-building efforts across the African coffee sector.
Together, these partners are fostering a collaborative space where practitioners can connect, learn, clarify EUDR requirements, and co-develop regional approaches that support sustainable, deforestation-free trade while ensuring that African producers remain competitive and included in global markets.