Quick answer
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 — a law requiring that seven commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood) imported into or exported from the EU are produced on land that was not deforested or degraded after 31 December 2020. Operators and traders must collect geolocation data for each plot of land in the supply chain and submit a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) before placing covered products on the EU market. Dutifi's EUDR tool will handle geolocation intake, supplier risk classification, and DDS submission.
What is the EU Deforestation Regulation?
EUDR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115) was adopted in May 2023 and replaces the earlier EU Timber Regulation. It is the world's first comprehensive supply-chain deforestation law and applies to seven commodities and their derived products: cattle (and beef, leather, tallow), cocoa, coffee, oil palm (and palm oil derivatives), rubber, soya, and wood (and a long list of wood-derived products including furniture, paper, and pulp).
The core obligation is straightforward in principle and complex in practice: operators placing these commodities on the EU market — or exporting them from the EU — must show that the goods are "deforestation-free" (produced on land not deforested after 31 December 2020) and have been produced in compliance with the relevant legislation of the country of production.
Compliance is established through a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) submitted via the Commission's EUDR information system before each consignment. The DDS must include the geolocation coordinates of every plot of land where the commodity was produced, plus a risk assessment and risk mitigation evidence.
Why EUDR matters now
EUDR has been phased in cautiously after a December 2024 postponement. Large operators must comply from 30 December 2025; small and micro-enterprises from 30 June 2026. These are now within months of being live, and the data-collection effort required for compliance is substantial — typically the longest lead-time element of the work.
The penalties are designed to be material. Member states must set national penalty regimes that include fines of at least 4% of annual EU turnover for operators in breach, temporary exclusion from public procurement, and temporary prohibition from placing relevant commodities on the EU market. For commodity traders, the reputational risk of supply disruption is often as material as the fine itself.
EUDR is also extraterritorial in effect. Non-EU producers who want to keep selling into the EU market must adapt their farming and forestry practices and start providing geolocation data to their downstream buyers. The compliance burden therefore propagates back through the entire supply chain.
Who needs this tool
EUDR compliance affects a broad range of actors:
- EU importers of coffee, cocoa, palm oil, soy, rubber, beef, leather, and wood products — including supermarkets, food manufacturers, and industrial users.
- Commodity traders who place products on the EU market or aggregate supply from many producers.
- Furniture, paper, and packaging manufacturers using EU-imported wood inputs.
- Coffee roasters, chocolate manufacturers, and rubber-products manufacturers.
- Customs brokers preparing the import declarations that link to the DDS reference numbers.
- Sustainability and procurement teams collecting geolocation data and supplier evidence packs.
What this tool will do
Dutifi's EUDR Compliance Tool will provide:
- Geolocation evidence intake — supplier-facing portal for uploading plot coordinates (polygon for plots above 4 hectares; point coordinates for smaller plots), with format validation and area calculation.
- Supplier risk classification — automatic country-of-origin risk lookup against the Commission's benchmarking system, plus supplier-level scoring based on documented compliance history.
- Due Diligence Statement (DDS) preparation and submission via the EUDR information system.
- Risk mitigation workflow — for high- and standard-risk supply chains, structured evidence collection (satellite imagery review, third-party certification verification, supplier audits) to meet the "negligible risk" threshold for placing goods on the market.
- DDS reference number management — links each customs import declaration to the relevant DDS reference for full audit trail.
- Chain-of-custody mapping — visualises the upstream supply chain back to the producing plot, for the consolidated reporting required of larger operators.
Related Dutifi tools you can use today
While the EUDR Compliance Tool is in development, the AI Customs Broker can answer specific EUDR questions today — DDS field requirements, geolocation polygon vs point rules, derived-product scope, and country benchmarking outcomes. The Document Checklist surfaces the documents required for any EU import route, including DDS reference number for in-scope commodities.