Consumers find value in organic food that is produced without the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser or genetic engineering. To many, buying organic reflects their belief in sustainability, nutrition, and supporting a healthy environment. In an effort to protect the integrity of the organic supply chain and deter fraud, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) , which develops the rules for organic food in the United States, and the National Organic Program (NOP) created the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Final Rule (the Rule) , which went into enforcement on 19 March 2024. The expansive,80-page SOE Rule– USDA’s biggest change to organic regulations in several decades – aims to strengthen oversight and enforcement of the production, handling, and sale of organic agricultural products. Regardless of your company’s position of the coffee supply chain, the SOE Rule will affect
your operations. Failure to comply with the SOE Rule can result in significant consequences for your business, including consumer-fraud class action lawsuits, business-to-business litigation, the inability to market coffee as organic, breach of contract disputes with supply chain partners, regulatory enforcement through civil penalties and criminal liability — and a reputational hit for your brand and company.

The SOE Rule strengthened many requirements and created several new ones for maintaining certified organic coffee. Some of the biggest changes to businesses (“operators”) working in organic involve:
• All operators who produce or handle (ie, those who sell, process, or package) organic products need to be certified by a USDA registered certifier;
• All handlers are required to implement a Fraud Prevention Plan (FPP) as part of the Organic System Plan (OSP) ;
• Implications for importers and exporters of coffee;
• The National Organic Program Import Certificate;
• Creation of the USDA INTEGRITY database for managing organic certification information;
• How changes to the SOE Rule affected operators who were already working in organic.

Scope
One of the biggest changes to the SOE Rule is that it has expanded the scope of coverage so that now
handlers of organic agricultural products, with a few exceptions, must have organic certification.
Handlers, such as traders and certain brokers (such as those who help assist sales of coffee between producers and exporters) must obtain certification through a USDA-accredited certifier.
The USDA identified these operators as those who were considered higher risk for committing fraud (looking across all organic agricultural products and not just coffee).

OSP and FPP
The NOP updated the requirements for what must be included in an Organic System Plan (OSP) . The OSP serves multiple functions — it describes an operator’s capacity for producing and managing organic agricultural products; it also functions as a planning tool for resource and budget determination, and serves as a contract between the certifier and the operator. An OSP also details compliance requirements for a manufacturing facility, a product formulation and its ingredients and suppliers, and other details of a manufacturing process. It can also assist auditors in verifying an operator’s compliance with organic regulations and in identifying cases of fraud or non-compliance. The SOE now also requires a Fraud Prevention Plan (FPP), which includes important information that verifies the organic certification and status of suppliers and organic products. This is especially important, since green coffee is often grown and processed by multiple producers and shipped together, and handlers can mistakenly co-mingle organic and non-organic coffee beans. An FPP includes steps a manufacturer or other operator should take at critical points in the supply chain to avoid organic fraud.

Certification

The SOE Rule also requires that importers and foreign exporters to the US obtain organic certification from a USDA-accredited certifier. It is important that the certifier be USDA accredited, as equivalency programs may not always be up to date. The importer or foreign exporter must also get an NOP Import
Certificate issued from its certifier prior to shipping any organic coffee. These are potentially big changes for the supply chain, and importers and exporters should factor in the time necessary to obtain an Import
Certificate when estimating the time needed for shipment and delivery to the customer. The NOP has also recently revised data fields in the Import Certificate. The USDA created the Organic INTEGRITY Database, which contains important certification and contact information on certified operations and which a certifier uses to issue an Import Certificate. Those businesses that were already working in certified-organic coffee prior to the SOE Rule will need to update their OSP to include an FPP and to comply with the revised Import Certificate.

Exemptions
While a goal of the SOE is to reduce likelihood of fraud by requiring higher risk operators to become certified, some operators remain exempt from the new requirements:
• Retailers that only process and/or sell organic products at the final point of sale;
• Operations that handle less than 70 percent organic ingredients;
• Warehouses that store organic products in tamper-evident packaging;
• Customs and logistics brokers;
• Transporters that only transport organic products.

Some operations, such as warehouses that handle bulk organic products, are not exempt from the SOE Rule. This overview of the new SOE rules is a summary – the full body of rules are complex and have many additional implications for coffee. It’s crucial, if you are handling organic coffee, that you carefully review the rules and navigate these complexities – or review the recently released NCA coffee-specific SOE Guide, which will take you step by step through the rules. Safeguarding the integrity of organic will
help protect consumers and businesses – including yours – and help ensure a credible organic supply chain well into the future.

Mark Corey, PhD, is director of Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at the National Coffee Association (NCA) of the USA and staff liaison to the Science Leadership Council (SLC). Prior to joining the NCA, Dr Corey worked in Research & Development roles in coffee for Keurig Dr Pepper, Inc. and Heartland Food Products Group and is a former Chairperson of the NCA’s SLC. He is trained as a food scientist, and his academic research focused on functional foods and human health.

• Mark Corey, PhD, is director of Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at the National Coffee Association (NCA) of the USA and staff liaison to the Science Leadership Council (SLC). Prior to joining the NCA, Dr Corey worked in Research & Development roles in coffee for Keurig Dr Pepper, Inc. and Heartland Food Products Group and is a former Chairperson of the NCA’s SLC. He is trained as a food scientist, and his academic research focused

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Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania are some of Africa’s coffee-producing countries where organic coffee farming is gaining traction with support from private companies, sustainability, and certification organisations.

Despite organic coffee farming in Africa being at its infancy due to perceived high costs involved such as paying for integrated pest management, hand weeding, pruning of shade trees, acquisition of organic fertilisers and certification fees, more organic coffee projects are emerging, especially in East Africa as farmers realise the high premium prices fetched from coffee grown by use of compost, manure and coffee pulp instead of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers.

For instance, German company, Kaffee Pura, is partnering with Enku, an Ethiopian firm dedicated to facilitating farmers’ access to the international market, to support a sustainable training hub to empower at least 100 local coffee farmers to expand their organic coffee cultivation.

The training is meant to qualify at least a third of them with the prestigious ECOCERT certification over the project’s 30-month period. ECOCERT, a France-based organic certification organisation, conducts inspections in over 80 countries, making it one of the largest operations of its kind in the world.

The project, suPPPort, has already secured a grant of almost €164,000 to boost Ethiopian organic coffee farming. The triple ‘P’ in suPPPort stands for the three pillars of sustainability: ‘People, Planet, Profit’, in what Kaffee Pura says ‘represents what drives our business core values.’

Ethiopia’s coffee is largely produced by small-scale farmers using traditional farming systems that are considered organic.

Organic, but not always certified

“Coffee farmers and traders claim that their coffee is organic by default, however, most coffee produced and traded in Ethiopia is not certified by an international organic commodity certifying agency due to the prohibitive cost of certification,” said a recent report by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Although the USDA says Ethiopia’s coffee enjoys a high demand in the international market due to its special aroma and distinct flavour, “the cost of certification is not affordable for [smallholder] farmers.”

Africa, which hosts 29 coffee-producing countries with an estimated output of 1.2 million tonnes of coffee as of 2018, has more than 361,600 hectares that have either been converted or are under conversion to organic coffee land.

FiBL Group, Eastern Africa region has taken the lead in organic coffee production with Ethiopia committing at least 161,113 hectares to organic Arabica coffee production with an estimated output of 51,400 tonnes of Africa’s total organic production of 59,000 tonnes in 2018.

Actual production volume of organic coffee is expected to be higher, partly because of the missing data from Uganda,” reported FiBL, which includes the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, comprising state-independent civil society institutions or non-profit enterprises operating as foundations or associations in various European countries.

Although nearly 50 percent of Ethiopia’s total coffee production goes to meet domestic consumption demand, the organic certified coffee goes to export markets where they fetch higher prices compared to conventional Arabica grown variety.

In fact, it is estimated up to 90 percent of Ethiopia’s coffee is organically grown, with the majority of coffee farmers using organic fertiliser, but only a few coffee producers have any certification due to challenges in traceability and limited support systems in entrenching the certification process.

This lack of certification means organic coffee growers have no access to premium paying international markets, hence their product is priced as the one conventionally produced.

Incentives to grow organic coffee

In April 2023, Fairtrade International and Fairtrade America announced a raise in the minimum price for Fairtrade-certified coffees, the first such an increase since 2011.

A brief by Sucafina, a sustainable farm to roaster coffee company, said the current minimum price is USD $1.40 that increases to $1.60 after adding the Fairtrade premium of $0.20. But if the coffee is organic, the seller gets the same price plus the organic premium of $0.30 resulting in a total of $1.90.

The prices have, however, been increased by 28.5 percent, effective 1 August 2023 (for contracts signed by that date) to $1.80, which iswhen the Fairtrade premium of $0.20 is added, rising to $2.00. But, if the coffee is organic, $0.40 will be added resulting in a total of $2.40.

“The momentum behind raising their minimum price is rising costs of production and runaway inflationary pressures,” Sucafina said.

Previous reports indicate the European Union bought an estimated $130,000 tonnes of organic coffee from Africa while the US, another major organic coffee consumer, bought an estimated 91,000 tonnes of the commodity.

The high demand for organic coffee in EU markets is “particularly driven by sustainability concerns of consumers and European industry players, as well as a growing interest in healthy living by consumers,” according to a report by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports (CBI).

“Although the European market for organic coffee is still considered a niche market, demand is expected to grow strongly in the near future,” the CBI report stated.

Private companies want eco-friendly farm practices

For Kenya, the increasing international demand for certified organic coffee has attracted the participation of private companies and nongovernmental organisations keen on promoting environmentally friendly farm practices such as shade-grown cultivation that prioritises preservation of biodiversity and conservation of water resources.

For instance, the Denmark’s Danida Green Business Partnership (DGBP), a challenge fund designed to promote market-driven green transition and inclusive economic growth in developing countries, is working with Solidaridad and local coffee companies in promoting traceable organic coffee in Kenya
through training of farmers on various areas such as how to make their own organic fertiliser using readily available materials, effective weed control, canopy management, pest and disease control and coffee nutrition.

The TRACE Kenya project, which supports the country’s economic growth as well environmental conservation, brings together at least 15,000 smallholder organic coffee farmers from the three counties of Kericho, Nandi and Bungoma.

At least 45,000 of the farmers are women and 1,500 are youth that are growing certified organic coffee destined for the export market, particularly Europe and USA.

“Our approach includes capacity building initiatives and interactive training on innovative organic coffee practices, facilitating access to high-yielding and disease-resistant coffee varieties and eco-friendly inputs, and promoting eco-friendly technologies,” stated a project brief by the DGBP.

“The project strives to create an inclusive, market-driven and sustainable coffee sub-sector that generates increased income opportunities and creates decent jobs for many along the value chain,” DGBP’s brief added.

Africa Coffee Roasters, a Kenyan partner in the project, said the TRACE project is “about improving livelihoods of coffee farmers.”

“We do not have organic certified coffee from Kenya, but we have a number of farmers who claim their coffee is farmed organically but we do not have third-party certification for coffee from Kenya,” said Joan Kithika, the sustainability and compliance manager at Africa Coffee Roasters.

TRACE Kenya project, Kithika said, aims at increasing third-party certification for organically farmed Kenyan coffee. She said there is demand for certified organic coffee globally as is the drive to address climate change dynamics in the coffee industry

“TRACE Kenya focuses on producing the first organic certified coffee in Kenya. It is about making sustainable coffee trade between farmers and the market in Europe,” she added.

The TRACE Kenya project is an example of an emerging trend within Africa’s specialty coffee market characterised by “direct trade, close contact between farmers and buyers, traceability systems and price premiums based on coffee bean quality,” according to CBI.

In landlocked Uganda, Africa’s largest coffee exporter, a leading coffee producer, Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union (ACPCU), has shifted to 100 percent organic, Fairtrade, and high-quality coffees.

“The combination of Fairtrade, organic and high-quality coffee sets this cooperative apart from their competitors,” stated the CBI report.

Additionally, the cooperative owns its own sorting unit, cupping lab and warehouse, which allows them to have control over their coffees and to be a reliable exporting partner to their clients, the report added. UK-based alternative trading organisation, Café Direct, is one of the leading buyers of ACPCU’s organic coffee.

ACPCU focuses on organic Robusta coffee, a hardier species of coffee, which, according to the general manager, John Nuwagaba, was a niche export market that is under-explored. Securing of Fairtrade certification for all ACPCU members “increased their access to certain markets and transformed the lives of the farmers,” he said.

• Shem Oirere is a freelance business journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has spent more than 25 years covering various sectors of Africa’s economy including the region’s
  agribusiness. He holds BA in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of South Africa and earned a higher degree in journalism from the London School of Journalism and is also a member of the Association of Business Executives (ABE).

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