Uganda and other coffee exporting countries have 40 days left to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulations that affect coffee and other agricultural exports to the EU.
Unless adjustments are made, after December 30, 2025, the EU will start implementing the regulations that prohibit up to eight products from entering the market, should it be found that they have been produced after trees were cut to pave way for the activities.
Fortunately, for Uganda, the coffee industry is, at least at farm level, is dominated by smallholder farmers, who were offered a longer deadline of June 2026. However, there is a worry that they need even longer period because of the style of production which is informal, unregulated, disintegrated and hard to mobilise.
In October 2025, the European Commission proposed further targeted changes to ease implementation and address IT system concerns, and possible deadline extension, However, a vote by the parliament on November 12, on whether to extend a six-month grace period for penalties and measures to be applied on medium to large firms was inconclusive without a majority vote on the proposal.
The proposal was for the deadline for medium and large enterprises to remain on December 30 2025, but its enforcement given up to June 30, 2026, while for micro and small operators, the EUDR would apply from 30 December 2026.
At a country level, however, several EU countries have proposed a more extensive postponement, pushing enforcement for medium and large companies to December 2026 and for small and micro enterprises to June 2027, without a phased grace period.
With the vote not giving a conclusive decision, the deadlines now remain unchanged, unless a vote is taken by December 15 this year.
SEATINI Uganda, trade information and negotiation NGO, has been calling on government to increase the pace of reforms to meet the deadline, while praying for leniency from the EU.
However, Herbert Kafeero, the programmes and communications manager at SEATINI Uganda, now says that pushing for and meeting the deadline is better because the regulations have a positive impact on standards, IT application, data collection, and possibly better returns for farmers.
He says that the EUDR reflects a global shift toward sustainability, traceability and responsible sourcing, and Uganda must prepare to demonstrate that its coffee is not linked to deforestation and complies with national laws.
However, without coordinated investments, clear guidance, and robust institutional capacity, Uganda risks being locked out of its primary export markets just as global standards are rising.
The Regulation requires all actors placing covered products on the EU market or exporting them from it to conduct mandatory due diligence and assess deforestation and legality risks within their supply chains.
According to the Coffee Production and Development Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, at least 1.6 million farmers have been registered today in accordance with the implementation strategy to meet the EUDR. By May this year, 1.35 million had been registered, when the department revealed that the target was 2.8 million by the December 30 deadline.
The Civil Society quote government sources as saying that so far 4 million people have been registered, but that the traceability system is yet to be completed. Kafeero says that this is one of the challenges to meeting the EUDR deadline, especially if the smallholder farmers are not yet on-boarded.
George Tumuhimbise, a coffee farmer from Mubende, says that many farmers have been registered so far in his district, but that the level of registration completion varies from district to district.
His worry is that there is little time left to ensure that all farmers are registered and the deadline might not be met. These are mainly smallholder farmers, famers on family-owned lands and bibanja owners, an issue which created ownership challenges.
Tumuhimbise said the country lost a lot of time when some people were opposing the registration process and the farmers avoiding registration expressing fears about government intentions.
”Mistrust by farmers arises from fears of taxation and state intentions, addressing this mistrust is critical for successful registration and compliance,” he said.
Paul Mugambwa, a veteran of the industry and founder of Kyagalanyi Coffee said the effective compliance required coordinated efforts at the grassroots level, but that unfortunately, the structures – cooperatives – were abolished.”Reviving the cooperative movement is critical to reaching farmers, organizing production,” he said, adding that ensuring coffee meets global market standards, because the collapse of the cooperatives left farmers disintegrated and fighting individually.
The farmers called on the government to mobilise other sectors for a concerted effort in sensitising especially the farmers on the need to register, without fear of negative consequences.
Jonathan Lubega, Trade Policy Analyst at SEATINI Uganda added that there was need to re-organize and reassemble tools to strengthen awareness about the EU regulations, which is not a job for only the government.
“Compliance works best when ministries, agencies, and the private sector work together, so lands, trade, and forestry issues must be coordinated for farmers to meet EU requirements,” he said, adding that ministries handling data, like the Ministry of Agriculture, bear the obligation to protect it. He wondered why there were no regulations to operationalise the Coffee Act.
“The Coffee Act has strong provisions for farmer registration, but without passed regulations, implementation remains weak. Regulations must integrate global traceability concerns to facilitate compliance effectively.”
Gerald Kisawizi, the Deputy Executive Director of Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF), an organisation that has been mobilising farmers to improve production and productivity in the central region, says the government should intensify the push for compliance because, while the organisation has been carrying out sensitisation drives, a big number of farmers remain unaware of the programme.
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