Accelerate Data Collection on Planters to Anticipate European Union Anti-deforestation Regulations

One strategic step that can be taken to deal with EUDR is through accelerating E-STDB.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO (PRI)

Rubber farmers tap in their gardens in Cahaya Mas village, Mesuji Makmur, Ogan Komering Ilir district, South Sumatra on Thursday (4/1/2024). The rubber garden area in the region has begun to be planted with coffee using the intercropping method.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Rubber industry players are demanding the government's promise to speed up the process of collecting data on planters as a step in anticipation of the European Union's deforestation product-free regulations which will begin to be implemented in January 2025. In the midst of limited time, efforts The government hopes to overcome the threat of commodity exports and become a national movement.

The European Union Deforestation Products Free Act (EUDR) requires commodities exported to the European Union to be certified with geolocation-based verification or due diligence (due diligence). coordinates or polygon) based on satellite imagery and global positioning system (GPS) from plantations accompanied by the application of traceability methods.

In principle, this regulation prohibits a number of commodities originating from deforested land after December 31st, 2020 from entering the EU market. In addition to rubber, this also applies to coffee, palm oil, cattle, soybeans, cocoa, wood, charcoal, and rubber as well as derivative or processed products such as meat, furniture, paper, leather, and chocolate.

If Indonesia is unable to meet these exports for the EUDR, operators/traders will most likely seek alternatives for the export portion by transferring the portion to other producing countries.

Deputy Executive Director of the Association of Indonesian Rubber Companies (Gapkindo) Uhendi Haris emphasized that one of the strategic steps that can now be taken to face the EUDR is through the realization of accelerated data collection on planters through the Integrated Cultivation Business Registration System Electronic (E-STDB). Of course, acceleration also needs to be carried out for all planters and farmers of other commodities outside of rubber.

"Until now, only 971 E-STDB for rubber planters have been issued. "Specifically for the rubber sector, at least 491,106 E-STDB are needed to fulfill the portion of exports of rubber and its derivative products to Europe," said Uhendi to Kompas, Sunday (5/ 5/2024).

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

A packaging box containing rubber sheets that have gone through standardization processes before being shipped for further processing into finished goods raw materials at PT Perkebunan Nusantara IX rubber processing factory in Ngobo Plantation, Semarang Regency, Central Java, on Wednesday (July 26, 2023).

Based on the latest data compiled by Gapkindo, out of the total 1.79 million tons of rubber products exported in 2023, only 11 percent or 206,203 tons were exported to the European Union. However, the issue is that countries such as Japan and Korea that import natural rubber from Indonesia in the form of raw or semi-finished products, which are then processed for export to Europe in the form of finished products, will also demand Indonesia's compliance with EUDR.

This condition threatens the export volume of Indonesian rubber products, which has decreased every year. "If Indonesia is unable to meet these exports for the EUDR, operators/traders will most likely seek alternatives for the export portion by transferring the portion to other producing countries," continued Uhendi.

Penalty

Executive Director of Gapkindo Erwin Tunas stated that if import companies in Europe are found to violate EUDR regulations, they will be subject to a penalty of 4 percent of their annual turnover. Erwin noted that import companies certainly would not stay silent and would impose part or even all of the penalty on domestic exporters if they were found to be in violation.

According to Erwin, the natural rubber sector, from upstream to downstream, has its own challenges in meeting the regulations required in the EUDR.

He gave an example, in the upstream sector, the rubber industry faces a number of challenges, namely information and data collection from plantations, the complexity of the supply chain where the majority of traders and intermediaries connecting farmers to processing plants are unregistered, and the lack of legal document fulfillment by farmers.

“Meanwhile, on the downstream side or factory, the segregation system to separate the source data of raw materials is not yet ready, besides the absence of data and information on the origin of the farmers' plantations for raw materials,” he said.

Also read: Dag-dig-dug Implementation of Anti-deforestation Regulations

However, to comply with the various requirements in the EUDR regulation that has been in effect since June 29, 2023, large companies have 18 months while small companies have 24 months. This means that, in general, rubber industry players currently have less than 7 months left to meet export regulations to the European Union.

Reflecting on the government's way and success in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that if there is political will from the government, export-oriented commodities including rubber can face the challenges of the EUDR.

Therefore, Gapkindo hopes that the government's efforts to face EUDR, whether through accelerating E-STDB or other ways such as accelerating the collection of industrial plantation data, providing guidance and assistance to farmers and planters according to technical standards, as well as the preparation and application of certification for sustainable plantation commodity development, can become a national movement.

"Reflecting on the government's way and success in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that if there is political will from the government, export-oriented commodities including rubber can face the challenges of the EUDR," said Erwin.

Lots of opposition

Apart from Indonesia, there are also many countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malaysia and Thailand, which oppose the implementation of EUDR. These countries are members of the group of like-minded developing countries which represent more than 50 percent of the world's population.

The group has also sent two objection letters regarding the EUDR. The first objection letter, signed by 14 countries, was sent on July 27th, 2022, while the second letter, signed by 17 countries, was sent on September 7th, 2023.

Also read: RI Export Commodities Face Challenges from EU Deforestation-Free Product Regulations

This group of developing countries is of the view that efforts to handle the issue of deforestation in the EUDR do not regulate the principles that are common or existing in multilateral agreements, namely the principle of shared responsibility with different weights(principle of common but differentiated responsibilities ). This regulation is also a form of discrimination and "punishment" for seven commodities in the EUDR, and has the potential to be inconsistent with the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In addition, 27 US senators have also written to United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai expressing concerns about the negative impact of the EUDR policy, especially for US paper pulp and paper producers. The letter highlights the stringent requirements of the EUDR, particularly regarding traceability that is difficult to meet by the industry.

DIMAS WARADITYA NUGRAHA

(From left to right) Assistant Executive Director of the Association of Indonesian Rubber Companies (Gapkindo) Angga Eko Emzar, Deputy Executive Director of Gapkindo Uhendi Haris, and Executive Director of Gapkindo Erwin Tunas, during a discussion with Kompas at the Gapkindo Secretariat Office in Jakarta, Thursday (2/5/2024).

They are asking Katherine Tai to continue communicating with policy makers in the EU. Katherine is also asked to encourage the EU to recognize the United States, which has strong regulatory standards to protect forest sustainability in the United States.

"The response from the United States shows concern that the EUDR policy is very detrimental, especially to farmers and is a discriminatory policy. The UE itself is also opposed by Copa Cogeca, the association of UE farmers, who stated that it is impossible to implement EUDR on time," said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto through a press release in Jakarta on April 25, 2025.

Indonesia and Malaysia have also conducted a joint mission to dialogue with representatives from the EU Commission and Parliament in May last year. As a result, the EU, Indonesia, and Malaysia formed a joint task force.

In February 2024, the joint task force agreed to discuss five focuses related to the implementation of EUDR. This starts with involving small farmers in the commodity supply chain, as well as differences in analysis and standards between EUDR provisions and national standards of other countries, such as sustainable palm oil certification ISPO and MSPO.

The task force will also discuss traceability systems being developed in commodity producing countries, as well as EUDR benchmarking, for which currently no methodology and data sources have been used. Apart from that, personal data protection will also be discussed.