The UK government announced today that it plans to move forward with mandatory supply chain due diligence rules in Great Britain, requiring businesses to check that certain agricultural goods, including coffee, are not linked to illegal deforestation.
The announcement, made June 23 during London Climate Action Week by UK Nature Minister Mary Creagh, follows years of inaction on a law that has been waiting for implementation since 2021.
The government plans to use powers under Schedule 17 of the Environment Act 2021 to implement a Forest Risk Commodities scheme for Great Britain, alongside strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulation. It plans to launch a formal consultation with businesses, civil society and international partners later this year before introducing secondary legislation. No enforcement date has been set.
The government said it is committed to aligning Great Britain with the “same core commodities and underlying information requirements” as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which covers cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood.
Unlike EUDR, which applies regardless of whether deforestation was legal under producer-country laws, the proposed UK rules would cover only “illegal” deforestation. EUDR is scheduled to apply in Northern Ireland for large and medium operators beginning Dec. 30, 2026, following two years of EU-level delays.
Coffee production has long been associated with tropical deforestation, driven largely by demand from consuming countries in the global north, like the UK. One recent study found that coffee accounts for approximately 1% of agriculture-driven deforestation globally.
A more recent report from the watchdog group Coffee Watch tracked spreading deforestation in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, a region that produces a significant share of the robusta used for espresso in the UK and European nations.
Meanwhile, an April 2026 Forest 500 report found that just 47% of some of the world’s most well-known coffee companies had published any type of public deforestation-free commitment for coffee.
According to recent USDA Foreign Agricultural Service estimates, the UK imported 2.4 million 60-kilogram bags of green coffee in the 2024/25 market year. For comparison, that’s roughly 10% of the U.S. green coffee import market by volume.
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