We discuss deeply virtual meson production (DVMP),
focusing on the role of higher-twist contributions
in the description of deeply virtual pseudoscalar mesons
at experimentally accessible energies.
The standard collinear approach at the lowest twist does not adequately
describe deeply virtual $\pi_0$ production.
By incorporating twist-2 transversity generalized parton distributions (GPDs)
and a twist-3 meson distribution amplitude,
we have determined the twist-3 contribution, which includes both
the 2-body ($q\bar{q}$) ) and 3-body ($q\bar{q}g$) meson Fock components.
Two methods to regularize the end-point singularities
are introduced - quark transverse momenta
and a gluon mass.
The resulting cross sections show good agreement with experimental data,
paving the way for a more comprehensive confrontation of theory
and experiment at leading order and beyond.