EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)
An EU regulation requiring importers of seven commodities to prove, with geo-located evidence, that products are free from deforestation after 31 December 2020.
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), formally Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, requires operators and traders placing certain commodities on the EU market to demonstrate that their products are deforestation-free, legally produced, and supported by a due diligence statement.
The seven commodities in scope
Cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood, plus a defined list of derived products.
What importers must do
Operators must collect information about each shipment that includes the geo-location of the plot of land where the commodity was produced, the date or time range of production, the legal status of that production, and a chain of custody back to the operator. They must then carry out a risk assessment, mitigate any non-negligible risk identified, and submit a due diligence statement before placing goods on the market.
The data challenge
For most importers, the difficulty is not the regulation itself. It is the data infrastructure required to gather, verify and retain the underlying evidence: geo-coordinates from producers several tiers upstream, certifications, transport records and the relationships between them.
How a supply chain data network helps
When suppliers publish their product, origin and certification data on the network, the data needed for an EUDR due diligence statement is already in place when the buyer needs it. The buyer queries the network directly. The provenance is preserved. The audit trail is automatic.