Latest news with #DeforestationRegulation
Economic Times
13 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
India's crude oil imports hit record high, up nearly 10% m/m in May
India is preparing its coffee exporters to comply with the EU's upcoming Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), despite being classified as a low-risk country. The Coffee Board is implementing a grower registration model and geo-location mapping to meet the regulation, which bans products grown on deforested land post-December 31, 2020. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads By the numbers India's crude oil imports reached a record 23.32 million metric tons in May, up 9.8% month-on-month, government data showed on data highlights demand in India, the world's third-largest importer and consumer of oil, reflecting the broader economic and industrial activities driving fuel demand rose to 21.32 million metric tons in May, its highest in more than a year, Oil Ministry data showed this will take measures to safeguard domestic fuel supplies, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Sunday, after U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear sites over the weekend raised the risk of disruption to Middle Eastern oil and gas, leading to soaring energy prices jumped on Monday to their highest since share of Russian oil in India's imports in May declined marginally as refiners cut purchases from Moscow by 15.7% to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), tanker data from trade and industry sources a yearly basis, crude oil imports climbed 5.9% from 22.03 million metric tons in May 2024, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).Imports of crude oil products fell by about 3.9% on a yearly basis to 4.20 million tons in May, while product exports rose more than 7% to 5.63 million tons.
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Coffee Board preps exporters to comply with EU deforestation rules
Talks are in progress with the EU on the bloc's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and Indian coffee exporters are preparing for the upcoming rules, an official said Thursday. India is working on a grower-registration model and collecting geo-location data for exporters to comply with the EUDR even though the country is categorised as a low-risk country. 'We are preparing the exporters. We are engaging with them so that there are no challenges,' said M Kurma Rao, CEO, Coffee Board. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villa For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Villas in Dubai | Search ads Learn More Undo The Coffee Board has been doing polygon mapping which is mandatory for plots larger than four hectares wherein companies provide the geolocation points of the plots of land where the coffee comes in their due diligence statements. The EUDR requires firms to ensure that products exported to the EU have been grown on land which has not been deforested after December 31, 2020. Live Events The regulation has implications for India's coffee, cocoa, soya, wood products, rubber and its products and leather goods exports. It prescribes fines up to 4% of a firm's annual turnover in the EU and confiscation of products and revenues gained from a transaction for non-compliance. Exports push Led by value-added goods especially instant coffee, India's coffee exports rose 40.2% on-year in FY25 to $1.8 billion. India's coffee exports grew at a CAGR of 22.52% in the last five years. 'We export 70% of our production,' Rao said, adding that India is exporting coffee to over 120 countries. The share of value added coffee exports in the total coffee exports have increaoed to 38% during FY25 with Italy, Russia, the UAE, Germany and Turkey being the major coffee export destinations. Korea and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council are the new markets. The Coffee Board has developed the India Colfee App, a one stop solution to avail all the products, services and information of its stakeholders on real time basis. Efforts are also on to increase the area under coffee cultivation, officials said.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ISRO, Coffee Board tie up to assess coffee's carbon footprint
The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) is helping the Coffee Board of India to quantify the carbon footprint of coffee and assess the carbon sequestration potential of the crop. 'Collaborative studies with Isro have been initiated to quantify carbon sequestration in shaded coffee plantations in India,' said M Senthil Kumar, director of research, Coffee Board, adding that Isro is collecting data. The aim is to quantify the carbon footprint of coffee in the backdrop of the EU's Deforestation Regulation, which requires firms to ensure that products exported to the EU have been grown on land which has not been deforested after December 31, 2020. The regulation has implications for India's coffee, cocoa, soya, wood products, rubber and its products, and leather goods exports. For non-compliance, it prescribes fines up to 4% of a firm's annual turnover in the EU and confiscation of products and revenue gained from a transaction. Senthilkumar said that nutrient formulations and organic supplements have been evolved for sustainable coffee nutrition, and these initiatives have led to India's coffee exports in FY25 rising by 40% year-on-year to $1.8 billion. India's coffee production reached 363,000 tonnes in FY24. 'We have come out with a formulation to improve yield and increase the number of berries and retention of berries. There are three high yielding varieties on which the Coffee Board is doing multi location trials,' he said. The board has released 13 Arabica and 3 Robusta varieties of coffee and will be applying for geographical indications for two varieties. At present, GI tags are granted for Coorg Arabica, Bababudangiri Arabica, Chikmagalur Arabica, Araku Valley, and Wayanad Robusta coffees. Officials said that 490,000 hectares of land is under coffee plantation across 12 states, of which 30% is Arabica variety and 70% is Robusta.
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Business Standard
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Centre sets up a new task force to boost country's textile exports
In a bid to enhance India's textile exports at a time when the country is signing trade deals with developed nations, the government has set up a new task force that will look into sector-specific bottlenecks such as regulatory hurdles, cost competitiveness and lack of enough export credit. Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has been appointed as the chair of the task force with representation from officials of Department of Commerce, Ministry of Textiles, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, along with representatives from export promotion councils, industry associations and exporters. In its first meeting, the task force decided to set up several issue-specific sub-groups, which will be led by relevant ministries in coordination with export promotion councils and industry representatives. These sub-groups will provide actionable recommendations to the task force, the commerce and industry ministry said. The discussion touched upon a wide range of issues affecting the textile value chain. These included upgradation of Environmental, Social and Governance infrastructure in garment manufacturing, use of renewable energy in manufacturing, European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), strengthening e-commerce for export growth, labour issues, cost competitiveness for productivity enhancement, skilling, and branding. Participants also raised issues with export-related incentives such as RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products) and RoSCTL (Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies). They also sought collateral support for export credit for MSMEs. Stakeholders also discussed PM MITRA textile parks, development of new Jute Diversified Products (JDPs), separate harmonised system (HS) codes for Geographical Indication products, productivity enhancement for natural fibres such as jute and matters about the Export Promotion Mission.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU's plan to tackle global deforestation meets resistance at home
The world's forests are under threat: hundreds of millions of hectares of forest have been cleared in recent decades. The European Union wants to slow this trend – but calls to delay new rules are growing louder. Every minute of every hour of every day, the equivalent of eighteen football pitches of tropical rainforest was destroyed last year, according to data from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Tally it all up and the world lost 67,000 square kilometres of precious primary tropical forest in one year alone, an area twice the size of Belgium or Taiwan. Tropical forests, which harbour the highest concentrations of biodiversity, are the most threatened of any forest biomes on the planet. They are also sponges for CO2, helping to prevent global temperatures from rising even faster than they have. To minimize its contribution to world-wide deforestation and promote more sustainable practices among companies operating in the bloc, the EU has put forward the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). However, as part of a wider push against the EU's Green Deal – a cornerstone climate strategy to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050 – member states are calling for further delays in putting the law into force. What does the EUDR aim to do? The EUDR's goal is to stop products from entering or leaving the European market if they are made by cutting down trees. Under this law, seven raw materials - cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya and wood - may only be sold in the EU if no forests have been cleared for them after 2020. Firms importing the merchandise in question to the 27-nation bloc will be responsible for tracking their supply chains to prove goods did not originate from deforested zones, relying on geolocation and satellite data. Anyone who fails to comply with the regulations faces heavy fines of at least 4% of annual turnover in the EU. Satellite and DNA analysis will be used to verify the origin of the products and whether the requirements are being met. In the EU, Spain for example has a 'special responsibility' to reduce deforestation as it is the largest European importer of soybeans, according to a warning issued last year by the NGO Alianza Cero Deforestación. Companies are however far from meeting this tracking requirement. In Germany, for example, Environmental Action Germany (DUH) found that out of 32 surveyed companies across the meat, poultry, dairy, and feed industries in the catering, wholesale, and retail sectors, only four could trace their soy, and just three their palm oil, back to the original cultivation area. Taking into account the production and use of the seven listed raw materials, the European Commission last month unveiled its first benchmark that classifies countries based on deforestation risks. Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar are the only four countries considered to be at high risk of deforestation, while Brazil and Indonesia – in the past often criticized for their extensive deforestation of rainforests – are currently placed in the medium risk category. The list raised eyebrows among EU member states and environmental groups. Austria's minister of agriculture and forestry, Norbert Totschnig, claimed countries with high deforestation risks were now classified as medium risk countries, adding that this undermined the efforts of 'countries like Austria, which have very strict laws and operate sustainably." According to data from the WRI published on Statista in October, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia were among the countries with the highest primary tropical forest losses in 2023, together accounting for a loss of 2.45 million hectares that year. Land&Forst Betriebe Österreich, an association of land managers, said: 'The current classification is incomprehensible and contradicts the clear wording of the regulation. Instead of a well-founded, data-driven assessment, political considerations seem to have played a decisive role.' Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said 'no one denies that Belarus and Russia should be sanctioned' but called it absurd to group countries like Italy – along with others in Europe – with nations in Africa that, in his view, have significantly lower regulatory standards. Environmental group Global Witness complained that the benchmarking system 'fell short," with 'countries like Brazil and Paraguay not categorized as 'high risk', despite the deforestation crisis consuming climate-critical forests' there. Why are EU member states pushing for further delays? Originally, the regulation was to apply from the end of 2024. The European Parliament however voted in December to postpone the application by one year, setting the entry into force on December 30, 2025 for large companies and June 30, 2026 for small and medium-sized enterprises. A group of 11 EU member states is now pushing to delay the application of the law even further, arguing that 'the requirements imposed on farmers and foresters remain high, if not impossible to implement." They also criticize the amount of bureaucracy required of farmers. In the document drafted by Luxembourg and Austria and signed by nine other countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Czech Republic - the signatories said the requirements 'are disproportionate to the objective of the regulation, which is to prevent deforestation where it actually occurs.' 'We do not want to flood those affected in Europe with bureaucracy; we want to prevent illegal deforestation,' Totschnig said ahead of a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels last week. His German counterpart Alois Rainer said 'the EU's initiative to curb global deforestation is a good proposal, but the bureaucratic impact on many countries in Europe goes too far." The countries are calling for the creation of a category of countries with zero risk of deforestation, which could be exempted from obligations and controls. Slovenia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food responded to questions from the Slovenian press agency STA saying that the country supported the initiative to further delay the law due to the excessive administrative burden for farmers, small forest owners, entrepreneurs and national authorities. It has issued a call for further simplification of the regulation, especially for the low-risk countries. In Romania, the Alliance for Agriculture and Cooperation (AAC), made up of four major agricultural organizations, said the law does not introduce real improvements for farmers and forest owners in the European Union. COP30 on the horizon Forest protection is high on the agenda of the COP30 United Nations climate conference that Brazil will host in November in the tropical city of Belem. The Forest Declaration Assessment, a broad coalition of forest-based activist and research groups, has said leaders must show progress on reversing the deforestation trend before convening in the Amazonian city. The EU takes part in negotiations at COP30 and is expected to push for stronger global action on deforestation and climate finance. But its credibility may be tested, as internal divisions grow and some member states are pushing back against parts of the EU's own Green Deal policies. The content of this article is based on reporting by AFP, Agerpres, ANSA, APA, CTK, dpa, EFE and STA as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project.
