Compliance & standards
Six standards, and what each one requires.
Once EUDR applies, an EU importer cannot buy your coffee or cocoa without the geographic boundary of every plot it came from and a statement that none of that land was recently deforested. Suppliers who cannot produce it lose access to that market rather than taking a discount in it.
The evidence has to exist before the buyer asks for it, which is why onboarding starts with plots rather than paperwork.
EU Deforestation Regulation
Law. Applies to coffee, cocoa, palm, rubber, soy, cattle and wood.
What the rule demands
An EU buyer cannot place your crop on their market without the boundary of every plot it grew on, and a statement that none of that land was cleared of forest recently. The boundary is the evidence. Everything else is paperwork around it.
What that means for your container
Your buyer needs the map before they pay, not after. One unmapped farm is enough to hold the whole container, because the statement they file covers all of it — not the part that was easy.
What you must have on file
- The mapped boundary of every plot you buy from
- A delivery record tying each purchase back to one of those plots
- Land documents for the farms you work with
What we check
Whether every delivery in the shipment traces back to a mapped plot, and whether any of that land shows recent forest loss.
What happens when a check fails
The shipment does not publish. You receive the list of farms missing a boundary, so agents can map them on the next visit while the crop is still in your store.
UK Environment Act (Sch. 17)
Not yet in force. Secondary legislation still to come.
What the rule demands
Large UK businesses will have to show that forest-risk crops they use were grown on land held legally. The detail arrives with secondary legislation, which has not been made yet.
What that means for your container
It does not bind a UK buyer today. The evidence it will require is the evidence EUDR already requires, so preparing once covers both.
What you must have on file
- Land documents for the farms you buy from
- The mapped boundary of every plot
- A delivery record tying each purchase to a plot
What we check
The same plot and land-document evidence EUDR needs, held ready — so a UK buyer's first request is not your first attempt.
What happens when a check fails
Nothing is blocked, because nothing is in force. The gap sits on your readiness screen until you close it.
Rainforest Alliance 2020
Buyer-expected certification in coffee, cocoa and tea.
What the rule demands
Certified produce has to stay apart from uncertified produce. And the volume you sell as certified cannot be more than your certified farms actually grew.
What that means for your container
Buyers in coffee, cocoa and tea treat this as a baseline requirement. Selling more certified volume than the certified farms produced ends the buyer relationship rather than reducing the price.
What you must have on file
- A certificate that has not expired
- The list of farms it covers
- Records showing certified produce dried and stored apart from the rest
What we check
That certified deliveries stayed separate through drying and bulking, and that the volume you are shipping is plausible for the certified farms behind it.
What happens when a check fails
The lot cannot go out as certified. You can still ship it — as what it actually is.
EU Organic (2018/848)
Required to sell as organic in the EU. Issued by an accredited control body.
What the rule demands
Produce sold as organic in the EU must be certified by an accredited control body, and kept apart from non-organic produce at every step from the farm gate onward.
What that means for your container
One mixed batch removes the organic claim from the whole lot, not just the part that mixed. That is the difference between an organic price and a conventional one, on everything.
What you must have on file
- A current certificate from an accredited control body
- The certified farm list
- Records showing organic produce kept separate from the rest
What we check
That organic deliveries were never bulked with conventional produce, and that the certificate covering them is still valid on the shipping date.
What happens when a check fails
The lot loses the organic claim. The record shows where the two met, so you can fix the store rather than guess.
Single origin
An Agrofresh check, not a third-party certification.
What the rule demands
No body issues a single-origin certificate. A buyer paying for one farm, one washing station or one district is paying for the crop not to have been mixed with anything else.
What that means for your container
The claim is verifiable only if the crop can be shown to have stayed separate from the farm gate to the lot. Without that record it rests on the supplier's word at a premium price.
What you must have on file
- Deliveries recorded against the specific farms or district you are claiming
- Batch records showing what was dried and milled together
- A lot that draws only from those batches
What we check
That the lot you are shipping draws only from the origin you are claiming, with nothing else bulked into it along the way.
What happens when a check fails
The origin claim comes off the shipment. The lot is still saleable — just not as what it was not.
Volume audit
An Agrofresh arithmetic check, not a third-party certification.
What the rule demands
Not a rule anyone published. What you bought at the farm gate, what came out of drying, and what you are shipping have to agree — allowing for what drying actually removes.
What that means for your container
7,200 kg in and 3,000 kg out is a ratio an importer's compliance desk will query. The check surfaces it before the shipment publishes.
What you must have on file
- What you bought at the farm gate, by delivery
- What was dried or milled together, and what came out
- The lot you are shipping, and where it drew from
What we check
That the weights add up across the whole chain, and that the volume is plausible for the land area behind it.
What happens when a check fails
The shipment does not publish. You see which step the numbers stop agreeing at, while the crop is still in your store and still fixable.
The checks
The seven checks.
Each check returns pass, pending, or fail. Pending is shown as pending.
Not published yet
Which check belongs to which standard
Each standard above describes what we look at in plain terms. Attributing the seven labelled checks to the six standards needs the console's actual configuration — guessing the mapping would put a product string next to a regulation it may not answer to.
Needs confirming against the console
Compliance evidence has to exist before the buyer asks.
Membership is how plot boundaries, certificates and delivery records get on file ahead of the request rather than after it.
Signing up starts an application. Applications are reviewed by a person.