With the arrival of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), there has been a lot of focus on the importance of the “first mile”. In other words, the smallholders or commodity farmers responsible for arguably the most important piece of the puzzle – “the source”.
However, countries including Malaysia and Indonesia, feel that the EU is not taking into consideration the work that has been done to end deforestation, and fear the new requirements set by the EUDR (satellite imagery, and digital mapping, for example) will be impossible for the small farmers to meet.
So what is the solution? Working closely with cooperatives or collectives. A number of commodities whose supply chains need to comply with EUDR – coffee, palm oil, rubber, cocoa – rely on cooperatives more so than commodities such as timber. This presents a slightly different challenge for those seeking traceability across such supply chains.
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