The global coffee industry is facing renewed scrutiny as the latest Forest 500 report from UK-based environmental NGO Global Canopy highlights its persistent struggles in meeting deforestation-free commitments. Despite the looming presence of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which has prompted some corporate behavioral shifts across the continent, the coffee sector continues to lag behind other major commodity groups on several critical indicators related to forest risk. This comprehensive analysis, now in its 12th year, systematically evaluates 500 influential companies across nine high-impact commodities, including beef, cocoa, coffee, leather, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber, soy, and timber, based exclusively on their publicly available disclosures.
A Decade of Missed Targets and Urgency Deficit
The 2026 edition of the Forest 500 report paints a stark picture of the ongoing battle against deforestation. The executive summary unequivocally states, "While some battles have been won, this year’s Forest 500 data shows that the fight against deforestation is still being needlessly lost." This sentiment underscores a broader trend of unmet corporate targets. The report points out that 2025 was a pivotal year for many companies that had pledged to end deforestation, yet these ambitious goals have largely been missed. "As in previous years, too few companies are acting with enough urgency," the report laments, emphasizing a significant gap between stated intentions and tangible action.
Global Canopy, the organization behind the report, has been a vocal advocate for the robust implementation of regulations like the EUDR, publicly opposing any further delays or significant simplifications of the legislation. The organization’s work is supported by entities such as Climate Arc and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), aligning with international efforts to promote sustainable supply chains.
EUDR’s Influence and Lingering Delays
The EUDR, a landmark piece of legislation designed to ensure that commodities sold within the EU are deforestation-free and produced in accordance with the relevant laws of the country of origin, has undoubtedly served as a catalyst for change. The Forest 500 report indicates that 68 of the 500 assessed companies, representing 14% of the total, cited the EUDR in their public documents concerning deforestation action. Furthermore, evidence of improved traceability mechanisms across eight of the nine assessed commodities suggests a positive, albeit uneven, impact of the regulation.
However, the report also critically notes that the EUDR itself has been subject to significant delays and dilution. The European Parliament’s decision to postpone its application – initially scheduled for late 2024 – means that large and medium-sized operators and traders will now face compliance deadlines on December 30, 2026, while micro and small operators have until June 30, 2027. This staggered implementation timeline, coupled with perceived weakening of the initial proposals, has potentially diminished the immediate impact and urgency surrounding the regulation. The EUDR, adopted in 2023, aimed to halt new deforestation driven by European consumption patterns, but its phased rollout has created a prolonged period of transition and uncertainty.
Coffee Sector: A Mixed Bag of Progress and Stagnation
Within the vast and complex coffee supply chain, the Forest 500 report reveals a landscape of mixed progress. On the positive side, the proportion of Forest 500 companies that have publicly declared deforestation-free commitments specifically for coffee has seen an upward trend. In 2025, this figure rose to 47%, an increase from 44% in the preceding year. Similarly, improvements have been observed in coffee traceability mechanisms, with 18% of companies demonstrating such capabilities, up from 14% in 2024. This suggests a growing awareness and a greater willingness among some industry players to track their coffee origins more effectively.
However, when measured against one of the most concrete and impactful metrics – the percentage of companies publicly reporting that more than half of their coffee volumes are deforestation- and conversion-free – the coffee sector falters significantly. With only 5% of companies meeting this stringent criterion in 2025, coffee ranks near the bottom among the nine commodities assessed. This figure represents a decline from 7% the previous year, indicating a worrying stagnation or even regression in this crucial area. Only the leather industry fared worse, with a mere 1% of companies reporting deforestation- and conversion-free volumes exceeding the halfway mark. This disparity highlights a critical gap between general commitments and the actual on-the-ground impact of coffee production practices.
Categorizing Corporate Action: Leaders, Laggards, and Those Who Backtrack
The Forest 500 report employs a scoring system that assigns each company a percentage based on its public disclosures. This score is weighted, with 25% allocated to the strength of a company’s commitments and the remaining 75% dedicated to the evidence of implementation, reporting, and verification of those commitments. This methodology aims to provide a nuanced understanding of corporate accountability.
Companies are then broadly categorized into three groups:
- Leaders: These companies exhibit strong, comprehensive deforestation commitments across all commodities they engage with and demonstrate significantly more robust implementation than the majority of their peers.
- Late Majority: This group includes companies that have signaled an intent to address deforestation but have made only partial commitments or have achieved weak progress in implementing their stated goals.
- Laggards: Companies in this category have made no public zero-deforestation or conversion commitments whatsoever.
Beyond these classifications, the report also identifies concerning trends: 14 companies have reportedly backtracked on their previously stated deforestation actions, indicating a potential erosion of previous progress. Furthermore, 24 companies are labeled as "persistent laggards," having failed to publish any deforestation commitment since 2014, demonstrating a prolonged absence of engagement with the issue.
Spotlight on Coffee Industry Players: A Glimpse at Performance
Within the context of the coffee industry, the report singles out several prominent companies for their performance. Nestlé stands as the sole coffee-relevant entity identified in the "leader" category, achieving a score of 71%. The report notes Nestlé’s disclosure that at least 80% of its volumes in beef, coffee, palm oil, pulp and paper, and soy were deforestation- and conversion-free in 2025, positioning it as a benchmark for others.
Conversely, the "laggard" category includes at least one coffee-specific company: the Italian firm FinLav, which received a score of 23%. This classification signifies a complete lack of public commitment to deforestation-free practices. Adding to the list of concerns, Vietnam’s Thang Loi Coffee Joint Stock Company is identified among the 14 companies that have "backtracked" on their deforestation actions, suggesting a reversal of prior commitments or a failure to maintain momentum.
A significant portion of the coffee industry falls into the "late majority" category. Major roasters and buyers such as Starbucks (36%), JDE Peet’s (41%), Keurig Dr Pepper (26%), and J.M. Smucker (14%) are included in this group. Their scores indicate partial progress and a need for more robust implementation strategies. In the trading sector, key players like Louis Dreyfus (65%), Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (45%), Ecom Agroindustrial (38%), and Sucafina (36%) also received scores that place them within or adjacent to this category, highlighting the challenges faced across the entire value chain, from sourcing to distribution.
It is crucial to acknowledge that the Forest 500 report, while comprehensive, captures only a segment of the global coffee industry. Its evaluation is based solely on publicly available information disclosed on company websites, rather than direct, on-the-ground verification of all operational practices. This reliance on public disclosure means that the report serves as a valuable indicator of transparency and commitment but may not always reflect the full reality of a company’s supply chain management.
Broader Implications and the Path Forward
The findings of the Forest 500 report carry significant implications for the future of sustainable coffee production and consumption. The continued reliance on outdated and often unmet deforestation targets, coupled with the delayed and diluted implementation of crucial regulations like the EUDR, creates a landscape where progress is threatened by inertia.
The report’s emphasis on the "urgency deficit" is particularly pertinent. As climate change impacts intensify and the ecological costs of deforestation become increasingly apparent, the coffee industry, which is highly sensitive to environmental shifts, must accelerate its transition towards genuinely sustainable practices. This necessitates not only setting ambitious goals but also investing in the robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems needed to achieve them.
The disparity in performance between leading companies like Nestlé and those in the "laggard" or "backtracker" categories underscores the uneven commitment across the industry. Greater transparency and accountability are essential to drive collective action. The fact that only 5% of companies can publicly report more than half of their coffee volumes as deforestation- and conversion-free is a stark reminder of the work that remains.
Looking ahead, stakeholders – including consumers, investors, policymakers, and the companies themselves – will need to intensify their focus on demanding tangible proof of deforestation-free supply chains. The EUDR, despite its challenges, remains a critical regulatory lever. However, its effectiveness will depend on rigorous enforcement and a commitment from businesses to go beyond mere compliance and embrace genuine sustainability as a core business principle. The Forest 500 report serves as a vital annual barometer, but the true measure of success will be the observable reduction in deforestation rates directly linked to the production of commodities like coffee.
The full report is available for download from the Forest 500 website.