The costs that companies will have to bear in complying with the EU regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR, are “negligible,” according to a recent report published Feb. 12 by Profundo, a nonprofit research organization based in the Netherlands. The analysis found they will amount to 0.1% of annual revenues and less than 2% of net profits on average for the companies they analyzed. Industry sources who spoke to Mongabay have raised concerns about the report’s findings, however. Nathalie Lecocq, the director general of the EU vegetable oil industry association, calls the assumptions used in the assessment “flawed.” “Overall, the report is underestimating the efforts in the value chain to comply and goes as far as to discredit all actors working towards implementing EUDR by conveying the message that these efforts are plainly overstated,” Lecocq told Mongabay in an email. The EUDR will require that importers demonstrate that seven commodities frequently linked to the destruction of forests did not come from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Initially set to go into effect on Dec. 30, 2024, the EUDR was postponed as companies and industry groups called for a delay to allow them to meet the new requirements. The EUDR will become mandatory for large companies on Dec. 30, 2025. Smaller enterprises will have another six months to comply. Part of the motivation behind the Profundo report was to understand the burden the EUDR puts on companies and, ultimately, on consumers who purchase their products, Gerard Rijk, a senior equity…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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