Thousands of Kenya’s Smallholder Coffee Farmers Risk Losing EU Market as Deforestation Law Takes Effect

A coffee farmer inspects his integrated farm in Kiambu County, Kenya. Credit: Jackson Okata/IPS

By Jackson Okata
NYERI, Kenya, Jan 21 2026 (IPS)

For the last twenty years, Sarah Nyaga, a smallholder farmer from Embu County in central Kenya, has farmed coffee. Like most across Kenya, she relies on the export market. A greater percentage of Kenya’s coffee ends up within the European Union market, but a new law threatens to disrupt what has been a source of income for thousands of farmers like Nyaga.

As the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) takes effect, smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya face an existential threat. EUDR is a new law adopted by the European Union to prevent the import and sale of products linked to deforestation and forest degradation. It targets seven key products, among them cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, timber, and rubber.

And even though smallholders like Nyaga have an extra six months to comply with EUDR, many are not aware of its existence.

Farmers are in rural areas, and many have no access to the internet. They rely on vernacular media houses for information, and many have never heard of EUDR. Government and cooperative society officials who have been tasked with breaking it down have done very little,’’ said Nyaga.

Peter Maina, a farmer in Nyeri county, says, “The EUDR language is too technical for an illiterate farmer to understand.”

“The only people who seem to understand EUDR are Ministry of Agriculture officials in Nairobi. For the ordinary farmer, it is business as usual, and many do not understand the implications of not complying with these regulations,” said Maina.

Tech Challenges

Across Kenya’s coffee-growing zones, farmers, cooperative societies, and coffee exporters fear losing the EU market for failure to comply with the EUDR policy. According to George Watene from the Global Coffee Platform, insufficient access to infrastructure and technical support is a significant barrier to EUDR compliance for many farmers.

“Farmers have limited access to essential information and communication technology (ICT) resources, such as reliable internet and suitable digital tools like smartphones. This undermines the ability to implement traceability systems effectively,” said Watene.

Watene says most coffee farmers are faced with logistical and technical difficulties posed by the requirement for detailed geolocation mapping, particularly polygon mapping.

“This requirement is challenging to meet not only for smallholder farmers but also for cooperatives and estates that may lack the necessary resources and technical capabilities, he said.

Coffee exporters are required to file a due diligence statement declaring that their product is deforestation-free, which means farmers must provide some personal data to help traders complete this statement. Some farmers are worried about the safety of their data.

EUDR requires farmers to provide exact GPS coordinates for their coffee farms. This allows EU regulators to check satellite images and determine whether deforestation or land degradation occurred.

“Sharing data is essential for EUDR compliance and maintaining EU market access, but data must be collected and used responsibly, with safeguards to prevent misuse and protect farmer rights,” Watene said.

Revenue Loss Risk

Bruno Linyuri, Director General of Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority, says that so far only 30 percent of the national coffee farms have been geo-mapped in 16 out of the 33 coffee-growing regions of Kenya. This means that only 32,688 Ha out of the 109,384 Ha of coffee plantations have met the EUDR regulations.

Felix Mutwiri, head of Kenya’s coffee Directorate, told IPS that a multi-agency team on compliance had been set up to ensure compliance. He said that Kenya is keen on remaining a leading exporter of coffee to the EU Market.

“The government has already developed a concept for implementing the regulations. To help farmers comply, we have rolled out Geolocation mapping drives and training on EUDR requirements for smallholder farmers,” said Mutwiri.

Smallholder farmers produce approximately 70 percent of Kenya’s coffee. There are an estimated 800,000 small-scale coffee growers and over 2,500 coffee estates operating under some 500 cooperatives.

With an estimated 1.5 million household employees, Kenya’s coffee sector constitutes 30 percent of agricultural labor. The Kenyan coffee market is projected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2033. Kenya could lose an estimated KES 90 billion (USD 695 m) in export earnings over five years for EUDR non-compliance.

According to Linyuri, the EU buys 60 percent of Kenya’s coffee exports. In 2024, Kenya exported 53,519 tons of coffee with an estimated value of KES 38.4 billion (USD 296.8m). In 2025, the country’s coffee production rose by 13% to 850,000 bags (51,000 tons), with exports increasing by 10% to 840,000 bags (50,400 tons).

Linyuri says the EUDR is not only about coffee and other products, but also about protecting the environment

“We have a problem of people clearing forests to plant coffee and other crops, and this policy will help us address this,’’ said Linyuri.

He added, “If we keep on destroying the environment through deforestation, there will come a time when farmers will have nowhere to farm because our land will be a desert. EUDR is here to help us dignify farming while protecting our environment.”

IPS UN Bureau Report