The chairman of Lavazza has warned that new EU rules will push thousands of farmers out of business and drive up coffee prices across Europe.

The boss of the Italian coffee company, Giuseppe Lavazza, said that upcoming deforestation regulations were not drafted with the input of the industry, The Telegraph reported. The new regulations will take effect from the beginning of next year and look to prevent businesses from importing goods, including coffee beans, if they have been grown on recently deforested land.

Under the rules, traders in cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood are required to “not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation worldwide”.

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Lavazza said that many farmers in poorer countries will not be able to cope with the changes and will unable to sell to EU companies as a result, limiting the number of farms available to source from.

It would also push coffee prices up higher across the continent than they are in Britain, which will not have to implement the changes due to Brexit.

Speaking to journalists this week, Lavazza said: “This is introducing a big limitation, a very strong distortion of the market.

“For all of the European roasters, this is very challenging. Think about farmers in Central America, I think very few of them are ready to be compliant with the regulation.”

Lavazza said the coffee firm would consider opening additional roasting sites outside of the EU in areas such as the UK, the US or China.

It comes as Lavazza warned last week that coffee prices will keep rising until the middle of next year as the industry continues to face “very challenging headwinds”.

He admitted to being “wrong” after forecasting last year that prices would likely begin to fall this year.