"Companies in food, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber and timber sectors call for no delay in EUDR", 17 November 2025

The coalition of companies, non-governmental and multi-stakeholder organisations in the food, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber and timber sectors, at every stage of global supply chains, from foresters to processors, manufacturers and retailers, are reinforcing their calls for no further delay in implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation.

This follows the coalition’s event in the European Parliament on 5 November 2025 (‘Time to Deliver: Business Needs Effective EUDR Implementation Now’) and letter to Commissioner Roswall on 2 October 2025...

Any proposal for a ‘stop-the-clock’ mechanism or a simplification review clause, leading to a suspension of the EUDR without clarity on its final provisions, would be extending current legal and market uncertainty for the long run...

A one-year delay offers no greater certainty of successful implementation. The relevant actors – including companies, smallholder farmers, national competent authorities and producing countries – need to begin implementing the due diligence obligations immediately, generating the practical experience that will be essential for sectors and markets to be able to adjust to the EUDR’s effects and impacts. Further postponement risks stakeholder disengagement, creates greater market uncertainty and instability, and offers no guarantee of fully functional IT systems after the new deadline.

The best way forward is a well-defined ‘grace period’ of at least six months (potentially extendable to twelve)...

We call instead for a streamlined system:

1. Due diligence statements would be submitted only by operators, i.e. those companies first placing relevant products on the EU market.

2. All companies, including downstream operators and traders, would be required to establish a due diligence system, which would be open to checks by competent authorities, and they would be required to react to any evidence of non-compliance, or substantiated concerns, about products in their supply chains.

3. All companies would be required to keep records of the companies they buy from and sell to – the same system as in the EU General Food Law, which works well and with which many companies are familiar...