In a daring alliance set against the ticking clock of impending doom, global coffee titan JDE Peet's and sustainability scout Enveritas have forged an unprecedented partnership with the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority. Their mission— to map out the sprawling coffee farmlands of Ethiopia, a strategic gambit aimed at warding off the looming threat of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). With a mere 10 months left for compliance, the stakes have never been higher.

The move combines cutting-edge technology, including satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, with the raw determination of on-the-ground verification. The agreement with Enveritas leverages existing satellite databases, promising to unveil the haunting extent of coffee-related deforestation and ensure rigorous compliance with the EUDR. The regulation, ratified in June, demands irrefutable proof that the land used for producing seven key commodities bound for European markets has remained untouched by deforestation since December 2020.

This effort propels the implementation of a national action plan set into motion just three weeks ago.

Adugna Debela (PhD), head of the Authority, said proposals were submitted to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) requesting technical assistance. He underscores the critical importance of gauging the precise risk exposure to deforestation and labour violations.

"We needed the help," he told Fortune.

Enveritas, already having mapped a substantial portion of Ethiopia's coffee farmlands, now joins forces with the Authority to complete the mapping of the remaining territories in the coming months.

"It should take only a couple of months," he said.

Enveritas reports a thorough assessment of the entire country, uncovering only isolated incidents of forest conversion to coffee production since December 2020. This remote assessment, conducted with the aid of advanced satellite technology, is expected to conclude the outlined activities in the Memorandum of Understanding within a matter of weeks, according to a Company statement sent to Fortune.

"Since we operate with satellites," reads the statement, "We've been able to complete the assessment remotely."

The looming threat of the EUDR casts a shadow over Ethiopia's annual export revenue, a staggering 500 million dollars from European markets. For a nation where coffee is the lifeblood of the economy, the industry experienced a harrowing downturn in the last quarter of the previous year, with a chilling 17pc revenue decline and a heart-stopping 15.4pc drop in volume to 78,000tns.

JDE Peet's, a US-Dutch company was formed through a series of mergers, including Peet's Coffee, US food conglomerate Mondelez International and Douwe Egbert. The behemoth with annual revenues soaring beyond seven billion dollars, sources coffee from close to 30 countries worldwide. This strategic pact with Ethiopia follows similar agreements with other coffee-producing nations. Although Ethiopia was not a signatory, Brazil and Indonesia, countries which export nearly 17 billion dollars worth of commodities to EU markets annually, had led a charge involving 17 countries to have a seat in drafting the EUDR back in September.

Farmers are also racing against time. Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union is under the duress of financial strain, taking on the Herculean task of georeferencing fragmented lands— a pilot project initiated to secure the 21 million dollar export revenue, a third of which was from the EU last year.

Dejene Dadi, general manager of the Union with more than half a million farmers under its wing, points out the biting pressure of costs on mapping the fragmented land mass.

"We've submitted proposals in search of funding," he told Fortune.