Coffee Watch Publications and Joint Letters
Wake Up and Smell the Deforestation
Ahead of the Brazilian COP, a new Coffee Watch analysis finds that from 2001 to 2023, Brazilian municipalities with dense coffee cultivation lost more than 11 million hectares of forest. Within that footprint, at least 312,803 hectares were directly cleared for coffee, a footprint on the scale of Honduras. The report links forest loss to drying trends across the coffee belt, and the rainfall losses to crop failures.VOCAL network letter to EU Leaders
VOCAL network calls on EU leaders to uphold the EU's commitment to the EUDR - particularly in light of recent discussions surround a "zero-risk" category and extended postponement of the EUDR's implementation.Dear MEP's: Don't Be Misled!
Today, Coffee Watch delivered a letter to relevant Members of the European Parliament urging them to stand firm in defending the EU Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR) against continued pressure from industry lobby groups. In February, Coffee Watch published a watershed paper highlighting how European and German coffee lobby groups attempted to derail the EUDR, citing feasibility issues. In contrast to statements from the lobby groups they are members of, numerous leading coffee companies—4C, Dallmayr, illycaffé, JDE Peet’s, Lavazza, Louis Dreyfus Company, Nestlé, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Olam, Melitta, and Tchibo—have recently explicitly affirmed their readiness to comply with the EUDR and their support for its objectives.
Checking EUDR Non-Compliance in JDE Peet's Brazilian Coffee
Coffee Watch and AidEnvironment, release the first of a series of company deforestation risk profiles. These will form the basis of a new deforestation regulation Compliance Checker. It links incidents of deforestation, forest conversion, and human rights abuses to companies that import forest risk commodities into the EU such as coffee. The first company profile examines JDE Peet’s, one of the world’s largest coffee companies. The profile identifies six coffee farms in Brazil from which JDE Peet’s appears to be sourcing coffee. These farms are linked to what satellite mapping shows to be forest clearing. Crucially, the forest in question was cleared after the EUDR cut-off date of 31 December 2020. There is a high risk that sourcing from these farms could result in non-compliance with the EUDR due to the detected deforestation.Get Deforestation Out of Europe's Coffee
This briefing provides separate lines of evidence for why it is vital that coffee be regulated by the EUDR, and why coffee companies seeking to undermine the EUDR or find excuses for non-compliance, should not be considered as neutral interlocutors articulating reasonable and data-driven arguments.
Coffee Prices Skyrocket From Decades of Deforestation
To save future coffee, adopting agroforestry is key.
Coffee’s Regulatory Blend
Mandatory sustainability regulations are rapidly becoming the new standard for global commodities, including coffee. This shift is not just necessary but overdue, establishing a level playing field that prioritizes human rights and environmental preservation.
Joint Statement: IT’S TIME TO ENFORCE THE EU DEFORESTATION LAW
Joint Statement: IT’S TIME TO ENFORCE THE EU DEFORESTATION LAW! The EUDR is currently facing significant pushback. Last week, the European Commission published a new proposal introducing simplification measures for the EUDR. However, several Member States believe the proposal doesn’t go far enough and are calling for additional weakening of the law. At the same time, a coalition of business associations is advocating for a “stop the clock” measure, which would effectively suspend implementation and reopen negotiations from scratch. In response, we’ve joined 74 NGOs in a statement urging policymakers to ensure the EUDR is implemented by the end of the year. We are not endorsing per se the European Commission's proposal, but rather appealing to the Council to refrain from weakening the legislative text further, given that the changes proposed by the European Commission are already significant.Checking EUDR Non-Compliance in Brazil's Rondônia Region
This coffee risk profile of Brazil’s coffee production state Rondônia is part of a series of reports on key commodities’ producing, trading, and buyer regions and companies that will serve as input for AidEnvironment’s Compliance Checker, an interactive case studies’ Dashboard. This sustainability risk profile of Amazon state Rondônia, Brazil’s 5th largest coffee producing state and 2nd largest producer of robusta coffee, analyses potential noncompliance case studies in the scope of the EU regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR).
The World's Best Coffee?
Repórter Brasil, with support from Coffee Watch, visited properties that hold major certifications and found bathrooms without showers, dark and poorly ventilated rooms, and improvised kitchens. Not to mention long working hours and a lack of formal employment contracts.
FARM Rio, Say No to Exploitation and Slavery!
Rio de Janeiro — Following a blockbuster set of legal actions alleging slavery-like conditions in Starbucks’ Brazil supply chain, a coalition of prominent nongovernmental organizations, labor unions, and human rights groups are demanding ethical Brazilian retail brand FARM Rio end its partnership with the coffee giant or make the partnership conditional on major reforms. Over a dozen organizations from around the world – including Coffee Watch, UGT Brasil, and CONTRACS, the retail workers union of FARM Rio – sent a letter to FARM Rio CEO Fabio Barreto Thursday detailing mounting evidence of serious human rights violations in Starbucks’ supply chains in Brazil and beyond — including allegations of slavery, child labor, and union busting.
Coffee Companies are readier for the EUDR than they claim
Coffee Watch Founder & Director wrote an Op-Ed published by Mongabay. Major coffee companies and industry groups attempted to weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), delaying its implementation until 2025 despite its goal of curbing deforestation and human rights abuses. The EU’s coffee imports contribute significantly to deforestation, child labor, and slavery, with millions of workers trapped in extreme poverty and forests being cleared for plantations, especially in Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Despite industry complaints, compliance costs are minimal, and coffee supply chains are simpler than other regulated commodities; companies must take responsibility without shifting the burden onto vulnerable farmers and workers.
Joint Letter to Ursula von der Leyen
We have joined more than 265 organisations to call the EU commission to uphold regulations that protect health, nature, climate, social justice, including workers' and trade union rights.
“Ghost Farms and Coffee Laundering”
This report details labor conditions on coffee farms in Yunnan Province based on three undercover field investigations, which found substantial abuses in Starbucks’ and Nestlé’s supply chains, especially affecting Indigenous communities.
U.S. and U.K. lawmakers must wake up to the coffee problem
It’s time for regulators in these top coffee consuming countries to wake up, recognize the urgency, and regulate coffee.
Reports to BAFA Challenge Coffee Giants Under Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Law
The organizations Coffee Watch, International Rights Advocates, and other NGOs, have filed reports under the German Supply Chain Act against Nestlé, AmRest/Starbucks, and Dallmayr. These reports document serious human rights violations along the companies' supply chains on coffee farms in China, Mexico, Brazil, and Uganda – including child and forced labor, massive violations of labor protection standards, and wage exploitation.
How Tariff Wars and Tariffs Crush Coffee-Growing Countries
Across the global coffee trade, a quiet injustice brews: coffee-producing countries are systematically penalized for adding value to their own beans, locked into poverty by tariff systems that reward raw exports and punish local processing. Now, with the U.S. escalating a tariff war that threatens even unprocessed coffee beans, these exploitative policies are no longer hidden—they’re becoming even more damaging.Joint Statement: Proposals to simplify EUDR threaten forest protection and EU’s credibility
In a joint statement, CSOs call on all EU institutions and Member States to stand by the commitments made, to uphold the integrity of the EUDR, and to focus on enabling implementation — not dismantling a regulation that is essential for forests, climate action, and global credibility.
Stop Slavery-Tainted Coffee at the Border
Starbucks was dealt a double blow today as International Rights Advocates filed a U.S. lawsuit against the coffee titan alleging trafficking and Coffee Watch filed a petition with U.S. customs authorities asking the government to block imports from Brazil to the U.S. of coffee tainted by slavery and forced labor by top importers including Starbucks, Nestlé, JDE, Dunkin’, Illy, and McDonald’s. The petition could end slavery-tainted coffee imports to the U.S. from Brazil, a decision that would have significant consequences for Starbucks.
Exploitation and Opacity
A new report by Empower in collaboration with Coffee Watch and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project, A.C. (ProDESC) titled “Exploitation and Opacity: The Hidden Reality of the Mexican Coffee in Nestlé and Starbucks Supply Chains,” finds that Mexican certified coffee marketed by Nestlé and Starbucks, is plagued by human rights violations, negative environmental impacts, and exploitative practices that trap small producers in Mexico in a cycle of extreme poverty.
Open Letter: Ensuring EUDR benchmarking reflects human rights and environmental risks
Coffee Watch has signed an open letter alongside 39 other organisations calling on the EU Commission to ensure the EUDR country benchmarking reflects human rights and environmental risks. Under the EUDR, the EU Commission will develop a methodology to benchmark countries based on the risk that their commodities are linked to deforestation. We are calling on the EU not to compromise the benchmarking through political deals and to consider human rights and legality.