The supermarket sector has welcomed the government’s plans to extend the UK’s anti-deforestation regime to a wider range of forest-risk commodities.
Defra this week confirmed it would build on an existing due diligence framework for timber under the Environment Act 2021 to include cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and certain derived products such as chocolate and furniture – in a bid to “further decouple UK consumption from global deforestation”.
Businesses sourcing these commodities with an annual turnover of over £1m would now be subject to enhanced regulation, Defra said, and “will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation”.
The government stressed it would ensure the new measures “operate consistently” alongside the EU’s long-delayed deforestation regulations (EUDR), with the aim that the information GB businesses must hold “will be broadly the same as what is needed for a due diligence statement when exporting to the EU”.
Defra also confirmed the EUDR will apply to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework’s dual market access conditions.
Retailers had “long called for “UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments”, said BRC director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie.
Aligning the regulation with the EUDR would also “avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers”, he added.
The UK government regulations are due to be implemented in 2027, subject to consultation. But with the EUDR due to start taking effect in Northern Ireland at the end of this year, Opie stressed it was also “important the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers”.
Opie’s comments were shared by British Meat Processors Association sustainability manager Lucas Daglish. He welcomed the broad mirroring of EUDR requirements, “as it should help minimise duplication and reduce administrative burdens for businesses trading in both markets”.
But he added there were “significant questions” about how the regulation would operate in practice, “particularly regarding movements of cattle and beef between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland”.
Detailed guidance would be “essential to allow processors, producers and exporters sufficient time to adapt their systems, contracts and supply chains ahead of implementation”, he urged.
Elsewhere, Sophia Ostler, senior policy manager at The Fairtrade Foundation, said it would now be “crucial we hear directly from smallholder farmers to help shape these regulations”.
They needed to “both protect forests and work in practice for producers at the sharp end of climate change, to support a just transition to more environmentally-friendly farming practices”, Ostler added.
The new measures would “help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing”, said WWF director of advocacy Gavin Crowden.
“Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world’s most unique and precious wildlife,” said nature minister Mary Creagh.
“That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.”
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