Ethiopia Rolls Out Digital Coffee Traceability System Covering 1.4 Million Producers Ahead of EU Deforestation Rules

#EBR_News Oct 30, 2026

Ethiopia has deployed a national digital platform to track coffee from farm to export, as buyers in Europe and elsewhere demand proof of origin and sustainable sourcing. The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority said in a press release that the Ethiopian Coffee Traceability Management System (ECTMS) is strengthening transparency, oversight and environmental accountability across the coffee value chain.

According to the authority, the platform monitors production, trade, inventory and exports nationwide. It brings farmer registration, farm mapping, contract management, warehouse monitoring and environmental risk assessment into a single system. 

The authority said ECTMS currently covers more than 1.4 million registered producers and over 1.5 million coffee farms spanning more than two million hectares, giving policymakers, exporters, cooperatives and buyers a clearer view of output from smallholder plots to large estates.

A central aim, the authority said, is to keep smallholder farmers from being shut out of the European Union market. It noted concern that these farmers could not afford to prove their coffee is deforestation-free, and said the system lowers that burden by placing plot-level data in one national platform, so smallholder coffee can be tracked and verified alongside that of larger producers.

 The collection of geolocation data for remaining plots, including those not yet covered by exporters and cooperatives, is continuing through various stakeholders. The authority said that as coverage grows, more smallholders’ coffee will meet the required standards and reach international buyers.

On environmental compliance, the authority said ECTMS compares the GPS coordinates of coffee farms with verified forest cover and deforestation datasets, using the geospatial tool Open Foris Whisp. This, it said, produces evidence-based assessments of deforestation risk and flags farms facing higher environmental risk, so that authorities and stakeholders can take targeted corrective action.

The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires companies selling certain farm products in the EU to show that those products are not linked to deforestation, and the authority said the system is designed to supply that evidence.

The authority said the platform also tracks commercial contracts and transactions worth billions, without giving a figure or currency, and supports the monitoring of warehouse stocks, storage capacity and transport. Its traceability module assigns a unique identifier to each coffee batch at origin and records every step, including storage, processing, transport, changes of ownership and export. Through a batch audit portal, exporters can request official audit documentation for specific batches.

 The authority said all four requests submitted so far have been approved, with none pending or rejected, and named Tracon Trading PLC, AMG Coffee Export and Cabey PLC among the participating exporters.

European buyers can also use a batch number to view the supply chain linking exported coffee back to producer farms, the authority said. They can download a GeoJSON file containing the GPS coordinates and plot data for the selected batch, which it said helps them assess deforestation risk and comply with the EUDR. 

The authority added that digitising export processes provides insight into exporter performance and supports Ethiopia’s position as Africa’s leading coffee producer.

The authority concluded that the EUDR, once seen as a potential threat to the sector, has been turned into a market opportunity through its work with partners. It said that because Ethiopia is a natural forest coffee country, with most of its coffee deforestation-free, the risk of Ethiopian coffee losing acceptance or competitiveness in European markets is greatly reduced.