Learn more about how, when and to whom the Regulation will apply
Find out more about submitting due diligence statements electronically
How the EU is working with other countries to roll out EUDR
Can't find what you're looking for? We've collected all the frequently asked questions in this document.
The Supply Chain
- Growing
Commodities must be produced legally and be deforestation-free. Geolocation data of the area of production must be collected
Commodities that were produced illegally, on land deforested after 31 December 2020 or that is not traceable, do not comply with the rules and cannot be placed on the EU market. Compliant commodities must be stored separately to those that are of unknown origin or are not compliant.
- Trading and shipping
Deforestation-free and legal commodities must be kept separate from other goods while being traded and shipped.
Mixing compliant and non-compliant commodities or commodities of unknown origin is not allowed. In such cases, the whole shipment would be non-compliant and cannot be placed on the EU market.
- Customs
Placing relevant commodities or products produced outside the EU on the EU market requires customs clearance before putting them on the market.
Only a customs declaration (neither a bill of lading nor any other commercial or logistics document) would be considered adequate evidence
- Importing
Before placing a product on the EU market, the importer must perform due diligence.
The importer must also submit a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) and will receive a reference number (and security token), which must be reported in the customs declaration for import.
Only compliant products may be placed on the EU market. The operator may place the product on the EU market when it has been released for import by the customs authorities
- Re-importing
The same obligations apply as if the product was placed on the market for the first time.
Where an operator (or trader that is not an SME) re-imports a product that was previously exported and places it under the customs procedure ‘release for free circulation’, the same obligations apply as if the product was placed for the first time on the market.
When exported, the relevant product loses its customs status of ‘Union good’ and that relevant product is considered to be a new product when subsequently re-placed or re-made available on the market. Already existing due diligence statements can help the operator to exercise due diligence.
- Selling or exporting
Before selling the product on the EU market, large retailers must check that due diligence has been exercised upstream in the supply chain.The retailer must check the DDS upstream in the supply chain and submit their own DDS based on all previous reference numbers. The trader then receives a new DDS reference number and security token.
Small companies (SMEs) do not need to check or submit due diligence statements for products that have been subject to due diligence further up the supply chain.
Traceability requirements
Commodities must be produced legally and deforestation-free. Traceability to the plot of land is necessary to demonstrate that there is no deforestation occurring at a specific location. The Regulation requires that Operators collect and provide in the due diligence statement geographic coordinates of the plots of land where the commodities were produced or harvested, which must then be submitted to the Information System. Products that do not meet the traceability requirements may not be placed on the EU market or exported.
Traceability requirements apply to each batch of imported, exported or traded commodities.
There is no exception for the traceability requirements via geolocation. Subjects must also assess the complexity of the supply chain, the risk of circumvention of the Regulation and the risk of mixing with products of unknown origin or origin in high-risk, standard-risk countries or parts thereof (Article 13). If the operator obtains or is made aware of any relevant information that would point to a risk that the relevant products do not comply with the Regulation or that the Regulation is circumvented, the operator shall fulfil all of the obligations under Articles 10 & 11 and shall immediately communicate any relevant information to the competent authority.
The geolocation information obligation to be provided in the due diligence statements is connected to each relevant product. Subjects will thus need to indicate this information each time they intend to place, make available on the market or export a relevant product. The due diligence must be repeated (i.e. updated) for each relevant product, including providing the geolocation coordinates accordingly.
The 'plot of land' – the subject of geolocation under the Regulation – is defined in Article 2 (27) as "land within a single real estate property, as recognised by the law of the country of production, which possesses sufficiently homogeneous conditions to allow an evaluation of the aggregate level of risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with relevant commodities produced on that land".
Operators (and traders that are not SMEs) are required to collect information on the date or time range of production under the obligations set out in Article 9 of the Regulation. This information is needed to establish whether the relevant product is deforestation-free. That is why it applies to the commodities covered by the Regulation that are placed on the market or to the commodities that are used for the production of relevant products covered by the Regulation.
For commodities other than cattle, the date of production refers to the date of harvesting of the commodities, and the time range of production refers to the period/duration of the production process. For instance, in the case of timber, the 'time range of production' would refer to the duration of the relevant harvesting operations.
The date of production and the time range of production should both be related to the designated plots of land. If more precise information is not available, due to the specificities of the production, the crop year and/or harvesting season could be used.
Information on the date or time range of production that product operators wish to place on the market or export does not need to be included in the due diligence statement, but operators are required to collect, organise and keep it for five years (Article 9).
Cattle
For relevant products under the commodity 'cattle', the time range of production refers to the lifetime of the animal from the moment the cattle was born until the time of slaughtering. If live cattle (HS Code 0102 21, 0102 29) is placed on the EU market (e.g. by importing or by the first selling of a cow after it was born in the EU), all geolocations until the first placing on the EU market will have to be collected and submitted with the due diligence statement (DDS).
If live cattle is subsequently made available on the EU market, non-SME traders will be obliged to collect and add all additional geolocations of establishments where the cattle were kept after the first placing on the EU market (see Article 9 (1)(d) of the Regulation). In the case of SME traders, they will not have to add their geolocations nor issue a new DDS but should keep the information relating to the relevant products they intend to make available on the market for at least five years set out in articles 5.3 and 5.4.
According to Article 1(2) of the Regulation, and in line with the definition of 'produced' in Article 2(14), the EUDR does not apply to cattle and cattle-derived products if the cattle was born before the entry into force of the Regulation, i.e. before 29 June 2023.
Products with multiple origins
Operators and traders that are not SMEs must ensure that the information on traceability that they supply is correct, regardless of the length or the complexity of their supply chains.
Traceability information can be added up along supply chains. For instance, a large, bulk shipment of soy that has been sourced in several hundred plots of land from several countries would need to be associated with a due diligence statement that includes all relevant countries of production and geolocation information for every single plot of land from all of these countries that has contributed to the shipment.
When part of a product is non-compliant
If part of a relevant product is non-compliant, the non-compliant part needs to be identified and separated from the rest before the relevant product is placed on the market or exported, and that part may be neither placed on the market nor exported.
If identification and separation cannot be done, for instance, because non-compliant products have been mixed with the rest, then the whole relevant product is non-compliant as it cannot be guaranteed that the conditions of Article 3 of the Regulation are met and therefore it may be neither placed on the market nor exported.
For instance, when bulk commodities have all been mixed and are linked to several hundred plots of land, the fact that one of the plots of land has been deforested after 2020 would make the whole relevant product non-compliant.
This is with no prejudice to other situations, however defined, where 100% of relevant commodities or relevant products placed on the market:-
- Can be traced to the plot of land;
- Are legal and deforestation-free by the meaning of the regulation;
- At no point in time have been mixed with commodities of unknown origin or non-deforestation-free.
Bulk traded products
For products traded in bulk, such as soy or palm oil, this means that the operator (or traders that are not SMEs) needs to ensure that all plots of land involved in a shipment are identified and that the commodities are not mixed at any step of the process with commodities of unknown origin or from areas deforested or degraded after the cut-off date of 31 December 2020.
For relevant composite products, such as wooden furniture with different wood components, the operator needs to geolocate all the plots of land on which the relevant commodities were produced. The relevant commodities’ components may be neither of unknown origin nor from areas deforested or degraded after the cut-off date.
The operator needs to declare the place of production of all goods effectively shipped to the EU.
For example, if compliant goods from multiple places of production are mixed into the same silo, stack, pile, tank, etc., and then some of those goods are placed on the EU market:
- The place of production declared should include the place of production of all goods that entered the silo since it was last empty (and could therefore potentially be included in the shipment)
- If the silos are not regularly emptied, the operator would need to declare the place of production of all goods that entered the silo during a period of time that ensures that commodities of unknown place of production are not mixed up in the process. For instance, when downloading part of the goods stored in the silo, this could be safely done by declaring the geolocation of all previous goods that entered the silo up to a minimum of 200% of the silo capacity, provided that the silo works in first-in first-out system. This approach applies to relevant commodities or products stored in stacks, tanks, etc. and all continuous processing.
- Declaring the place of production of x amount of goods that entered the silo, where x is the amount placed on the EU is not allowed under the Regulation, as it would violate the prohibition under the Regulation of placing products of unknown origin on the Union market.
Legality requirement
Relevant commodities and relevant products cannot be placed on the market or exported unless they have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production as per the requirement set out in Article 3(b).
The obligations under Article 3 are cumulative: the legality requirement (Article 3(b)) has to be fulfilled in addition to the ‘deforestation-free’ requirement (Article 3(a)) and the requirement for the commodities or products to be covered by a due diligence statement (Article 3(c)).
"Relevant legislation" may include, among others, national laws (including relevant secondary law) and jurisprudence, as well as international law as applicable in domestic law. The Regulation presents a non-exhaustive list of legislative areas without specifying particular legal acts, as these differ from country to country and may be subject to amendments.
Relevant documentation is required for risk assessment, as stated in articles 9 (1) (h) and 10. Such documentation may, for example, consist of official documents from public authorities, contractual agreements, court decisions or impact assessments and audits carried out. In any case, the operator has to ensure that these documents are verifiable and reliable, taking into account the risk of corruption in the country of production.
The Commission will issue a specific guidance document on legality in due course.
The thrust of the regulation requires a correspondence between the commodities/products placed on the market and the plots of land where they are effectively produced. However, an operator can, in specific circumstances, provide geolocation coordinates for several plots of land higher than those where the commodities were produced.
Operators may only declare 'in excess' when a bulk commodity is fully traced to the plot of land and is not mixed with commodities of unknown origin or non-compliant commodities.
If the operator declares ‘in excess’ in the due diligence statement, the operator assumes full responsibility for the compliance of all plots of land for which geolocation is provided, regardless of whether such plots of land are concerned by the production of commodities/products eventually placed on the market.
If one plot of land ‘geolocalised’ in the due diligence statement is not compliant, the entire set of plots of land geolocalised is non-compliant. In these cases, the operator declaring plots of land in excess also has to carry out full due diligence in compliance with articles 9, 10 and 11, for all plots of land declared (including those in excess) and has to provide evidence that:-
- The risk of non-compliance has been assessed in accordance with Article 10.2 for all plots of land, and;
- That, in such assessment, the operator has taken particular account of criteria (i) and (j), of Article 10 and;
- That such risk is negligible for all plots of land.
With no prejudice to the above-mentioned case scenarios, traceability practices that aim to declare an excessive amount of plots of land (for instance, on a regional or country-wide basis) are generally not in line with the rules of this regulation. Such practices would not allow operators to comply with their core due diligence obligations. It would also hinder the work of EU Member States Competent Authorities, making it difficult to comply with their obligations to carry out checks as per Article 16.
Farmers can collect the geolocation of their plots of land regardless of whether they are entered or not in a land registry or the lack of IDs or titles over their land. Unless they are direct suppliers of the operators or are operators themselves, no personal information is required from the farmers and the geolocation of the plot used to supply commodities for placing on the EU market is sufficient.
Concerning the legality requirement related to land use rights in Article 2 (40)(a), the Regulation requires compliance with national laws. If farmers are legally allowed to farm and sell their product under the national laws (which might lack a property register and where some farmers might lack IDs), then that would also mean that operators (or traders that are not SMEs) would generally be able to meet the legality requirement when sourcing from those farmers. Operators (or traders that are not SMEs), nonetheless, would need to verify that there is no risk of illegality in their supply chains.
There are many different means that operators (or traders that are not SMEs) already use today to collect the geolocation and legality information: some resort to directly mapping their suppliers, while others rely on intermediaries like cooperatives, certification bodies, national traceability systems or other companies. Operators (or traders that are not SMEs) are legally responsible for ensuring that the geolocation and legality information is correct, regardless of the means or intermediaries they use to collect that information.
Information on geolocation data
Geographic information linking products to the plot of land is already used by part of the industry and several certification organisations. Remotely sensed information (air photos, satellite images) or other information (e.g. photographs in the field with linked geotags and time stamps) may be used for verifying if the geolocation of declared commodities and products is linked to deforestation.
See below for more details regarding geolocation data.
Collecting the geolocation coordinates of a plot of land can be done via mobile phones, handheld Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) devices and widespread and free-to-use digital applications, e.g. Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These do not require mobile network coverage, only a solid GNSS signal, like those provided by Galileo.
Operators (or traders that are not SMEs) who place on cattle products on the market must geolocate all establishments associated with raising the cattle, encompassing the birthplace, farms, where they were fed, grazing lands, and slaughterhouses.
It is not enough to provide the geolocation of the land where the calf was born. Establishments where cattle are kept can be described with a single point of geolocation coordinate.
An operator may use a producer’s geolocation data. But it is the operator who is ultimately responsible for its accuracy and not the producer who provides it. The Regulation does not apply to producers which do not place products on the EU market themselves (and thus do not fall under the definition of operators and traders).
In such a case, the operator will have to ensure that the area where the relevant commodity was produced is correctly mapped and that the geolocation corresponds to the plot of land. Among measures which the operator can use is support for suppliers to meet the requirements of the Regulation, in particular for smallholders, through capacity building and other investments.
Polygons are to be used to describe the perimeter of the plots of land where the commodity has been produced. Each polygon should indicate one single plot of land, whether contiguous or not. Where relevant products are made of commodities from several plots of land, several polygons must be provided in one due diligence statement. A polygon cannot be used to trace the perimeter of a random land area that might include plots of land only in some of its parts.
There is neither an obligation nor a possibility to provide the plot of land information by means of circumference. For plots of land of more than four hectares (for the production of relevant commodities other than cattle), geolocation has to be provided using polygons (not a unique central point with a circumference), meaning latitude and longitude points of six decimal digits to describe the perimeter of each plot of land.
For plots of land under 4 hectares, operators (and traders that are not SMEs) may instead describe geolocation with one latitude and longitude point only. Establishments where cattle are kept can be described with a single point of geolocation coordinate.
There is no fixed threshold on the minimum or maximum size for plots of land in the Regulation, as long as the plot of land captures the precise area of production and has sufficiently homogeneous conditions to allow an evaluation of the aggregate level of risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with relevant products produced on that land.
There is no limit on the area of polygons that can be imported into the Information System, but the total file size of the DDS cannot exceed 25 Mb.
The detailed rules for the functioning of the Information System will be established through an implementing act. Stakeholders will be informed and consulted on these developments via the Multi-Stakeholder Platform on Protecting and Restoring the World’s Forests.
The Information System will, where possible, facilitate the work of operators by allowing some widely used digital geolocation formats to be uploaded directly into the system when declaring polygons in a due diligence statement.
Currently, the Information System supports GeoJSON file format and WGS-84, with EPSG-4326 projection.
Over time, the Information System will evolve based on feedback from users.
Operators and traders that are not SMEs need to verify and be able to prove that the geolocation is correct.
Ensuring the truthfulness and precision of geolocation information is a crucial aspect of the responsibilities that operators and traders must fulfil. Providing incorrect geolocation details would constitute a breach of the obligations of operators (and traders that are not SMEs) under the Regulation.
Operators (and traders that are not SMEs) and enforcing authorities could crosscheck the geolocation coordinates against satellite images or forest cover maps to assess if the products meet the deforestation-free requirement of the Regulation. However, the operators (and traders that are not SMEs) remain liable.