Fairtrade Launches Free EUDR Geolocation Tool for Coffee Cooperatives

Fairtrade International is launching a new digital platform called Plot Insights to help coffee and cocoa cooperatives manage and verify geolocation data ahead of the looming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) enforcement. 

Announced June 16, Plot Insights will be offered as a free tool for Fairtrade-certified cooperatives, enabling them to upload farm plot geolocation data, receive immediate data-quality feedback and visualization, and obtain deforestation risk analysis.

The analysis comes through Dutch nature technology firm Satelligence, which has been working with Fairtrade since 2023, the year the EUDR was adopted. Enforcement of the law — designed to ensure that certain agricultural commodities and derived products sold in the EU do not contribute to deforestation — has been delayed twice, with enforcement for large and medium operators now slated to begin Dec. 30, 2026.

Fairtrade said that starting in October, cooperatives will be able to share their geolocation data directly with European exporters and importers through Fairtrace, Fairtrade’s existing sales transaction platform. Data will be automatically converted to an EUDR-aligned format and can be attached to sales contracts for use in importer due diligence statements, according to the nonprofit group.

“Farmers are having to adopt new digital tools and map farm plots, which is an expensive burden, in order to continue to be viable suppliers to the European market,” Fairtrade International senior advisor Brenda Mariana Huerta García said in an announcement of Plot Insights. 

Huerta García added that the platform and the intelligence it provides were “all built with cooperatives’ businesses in mind.”

Under the EUDR, importers bringing coffee or cocoa into the EU must be able to demonstrate that each product is traceable to specific plots of land that were not deforested after Dec. 31, 2020.

Actors throughout the coffee industry have consistently warned over the past three years that the burden of compliance under the new law is likely to most negatively affect smallholder farmers, Indigenous farmers and other small-scale producers who lack financial or technical resources. 

According to Fairtrade, where risk is identified through Satelligence’s deforestation analysis, cooperatives can use that information to develop mitigation plans required under Fairtrade’s own standards, including following up on deforestation alerts or monitoring plots located near protected areas.

The platform is housed within Unify, a new centralized, private hub for Fairtrade’s digital tools. Fairtrade-certified producer organizations are the first users, while access for traders, retailers and brands is planned for later phases.

Fairtrade’s three regional producer networks — Fairtrade Africa, the Network of Asia & Pacific Producers (NAPP) and the Latin American and Caribbean Coordinator of Small Producers and Fair Trade Workers (CLAC) — are currently helping more than 800 certified coffee and cocoa cooperatives adopt the platform ahead of the EUDR, according to Bonn, Germany-based Fairtrade International.

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