Leading Coffee Companies, including Sucden Coffee, are Launching Global Mapping Initiative to combat deforestation
Sucden Coffee has joined the Coffee Canopy Partnership, a new industry-wide initiative aimed at identifying and addressing coffee-related deforestation while supporting sustainable coffee production.
Initiated by JDE Peet’s (now part of Keurig Dr Pepper), the partnership brings together leading sector players including Louis Dreyfus Company, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Sucafina, Touton, Tchibo, and Sucden Coffee. Together, we aim to create the world’s first openly accessible, high-resolution map of global coffee production.
Using advanced satellite imagery from Airbus combined with artificial intelligence and field verification, the initiative will map coffee farms at plot level, identify areas of deforestation risk, and support restoration efforts in collaboration with governments and local communities.
The project begins with a pilot phase in East Africa – covering Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda – mapping approximately 1.2 million square kilometres of coffee-growing landscapes. The partnership plans to expand globally and achieve full coverage of all coffee-growing regions by 2027.
A key objective is to address long-standing data gaps that have led to coffee farms – especially agroforestry and shade-grown systems – being incorrectly classified as forests. This has become increasingly important under the EU Deforestation Regulation, which restricts market access for products linked to deforestation after 2020.
By delivering accurate baseline and updated datasets, the Coffee Canopy Partnership aims to provide a transparent, shared source of information that supports deforestation-free supply chains while safeguarding the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers.
The initiative is supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and endorsed by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
“The Canopy Project sets a new benchmark for how the EUDR can be implemented in a way that genuinely tackles deforestation. It demonstrates unprecedented leadership, ambition, and collaboration in the pre-competitive space, delivering an open-source, aligned methodology that the entire sector can build on.” Veronika Semelkova, Head of Sustainability, Sucden Coffee