Sucafina is a leading sustainable Farm to Roaster coffee company with a family tradition in commodities that stretches back to 1905.
Its IMPACT Responsible Sourcing programme assures long-term, sustainable performance along every step of its supply chain.
A proven EUDR process, growing in scale
Sucafina has been investing in deforestation-free supply chains for more than five years, well before the EUDR took effect. As volumes grew, the goal was to keep raising accuracy and align processes while making the process less cumbersome.
A specialist team covering 19 origins
Sucafina’s GIS team checks plot data from 19 origins for quality, overlaps with protected areas and deforestation. The team worked with Python scripts, GIS software and in-house tools, and a separate provider handled deforestation and legality checks.
Turnaround time
Each dataset took at least three days to reach Sucafina’s internal dashboards, and a full country could take up to a week. Because every step was run manually, teams planned their submissions four weeks in advance.
Direct and indirect supply chains
For direct supply chains, Sucafina has a deep farmer network and holds data to serve its producer base. For indirect supply chains, it must rely on plot data shared by third-party suppliers, often drawn from public registries. When a risk was identified on one of these plots, the team had to rely on the supplier to provide updated information, which could take time.
All checks in one place, at the centre of Sucafina’s EUDR process
One platform for every check
Verify assesses plot data quality, deforestation, protected areas and indigenous lands in one place, reducing bottlenecks and manual data entry and enabling the team to deliver more quickly and responsively.
Aligned with industry requirements
Verify aligns with ICE requirements and connects with TRACES, extending what Sucafina’s GIS team can deliver without adding manual steps.
A shared language across the sector
Many of Sucafina’s industry peers also use Meridia Verify, so suppliers receive consistent feedback from several buyers. Since adopting Verify, Sucafina has seen increased responsiveness from suppliers.
A clear response for every risk
Verify’s results feed directly into Sucafina’s internal risk-response protocol. For each type of risk, the protocol tells teams what to do: provide more data, return to the field or correct the plot.
With Verify, everything we were spending valuable time and labour building ourselves was already in one place: the geometric quality checks, deforestation, protected areas and indigenous lands. It’s aligned with what the industry needs, and it means we’re speaking the same language as our peers.
Land use change emissions
Putting EUDR plot data to further use
Around 96% of Sucafina’s emissions come from producing the coffee it buys, at farm level and upstream of its own operations. Sucafina already maps farm polygons for EUDR compliance and other operational needs, so it holds the data to calculate land use change emissions for the specific farms it sources from.
Plot-level data Sucafina already collects
For its direct supply chains, Sucafina is calculating land use change emissions at plot level, working with Meridia and AdAstra Sustainability.
More precise emissions data
The plot-level emission factors feed into Sucafina’s corporate emissions inventory and its client projects, such as insetting. For direct supply chains, this gives Sucafina emissions data that reflects the specific farms it sources from.
Generic emission factors give you an average of every farmer in a country, which doesn’t represent our own supply chain. By using the polygons we already collect, we can calculate emissions for the farms we actually source from, with a much higher level of certainty.
What it means for Sucafina and its roasters
All ~500,000 plots in Sucafina’s database, across 19 origins, are now assessed in Verify to one consistent standard, and any risks identified are followed up through Sucafina’s response protocol. Datasets reach internal dashboards much quicker, so the GIS team can take on more volume at shorter notice.
Sucafina’s roaster clients benefit too: because the coffee they buy has already been checked consistently, they avoid redundant verifications on their side. Through its IMPACT Responsible Sourcing programme, Sucafina applies this same EUDR-aligned standard to all IMPACT-verified coffee, whether or not it is bound for the EU.
We’re a GIS team of three, managing 500,000 plots from 19 origins. Our tools were powerful, but every step depended on one of us running it manually. When we were stretched, we ran the risk of data processing delays, which is problematic for a sector where quick results are key.
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