What is EUDR, and does it apply to you?
A plain explainer of the regulation, sourced from the text itself and the Commission's Guidance Document.
What EUDR is
The EU Deforestation Regulation requires companies placing certain commodities on the EU market to prove those commodities weren't grown on land deforested after 31 December 2020. It covers seven commodities and their derived products:
- Deforestation
- Forest converted to agricultural use after 31 December 2020, at any extent, even a fraction of a hectare.
- Forest
- Land over 0.5 hectares, trees able to reach 5 metres, canopy cover over 10%, not predominantly agricultural or urban (Art. 2(4)).
- Forest degradation
- A separate concept from deforestation: structural change from primary forest to plantation or other wooded land. Applies specifically to wood/timber.
Converting forest to a non-agricultural use (a road, a building, a conservation project) doesn't count as deforestation under EUDR, even though forest is lost.
Who's affected
EUDR draws a sharp line between two roles, and only one of them carries the real burden:
- Operators place a commodity on the EU market for the first time, typically the company importing raw beans, logs, hides, or crude oil directly from origin. Operators must run full due diligence and file a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) before every shipment clears customs.
- Downstream operators/traders buy an already-processed product from another EU company. Their obligation is much lighter: reference an existing DDS number, no geolocation collection of their own.
What due diligence requires
Every operator, of any size, must by default do four things before a shipment clears customs:
Collect supplier info
Geolocation and supply-chain data for every plot (Art. 9).
Risk assessment
Check that information against deforestation and legality risk (Art. 10).
Mitigate
Address any real risk the assessment finds (Art. 11).
File a DDS
Submit a Due Diligence Statement before the shipment clears customs.
Art. 13: skip the assessment steps
Only if a product is sourced 100% from a Low-risk country. A DDS is still required even then.
Art. 4a: one-off Simplified Declaration
Only for a micro/small operator in a low-risk country who grew the commodity themselves, not for buying from a producer elsewhere.
If neither shortcut applies to you, being small buys a later deadline, not a lighter filing obligation. You file a full DDS per shipment, the same as a large company, with far less staff to do it.
- Grouping (Art. 8a): a new DDS can reference a previously-submitted one's reference number instead of re-entering everything. Useful for a repeat supplier or plot.
- Mass balance: mixing compliant and non-compliant material isn't allowed. An unseparated batch is treated as non-compliant in its entirety if even one lot in it is.
Country risk tiers
Every sourcing country is classified into one of three tiers:
"Negligible risk" isn't a fixed threshold or checklist. It's a documented judgment call an operator makes after actually running the Art. 10/11 steps. No blanket "zero-risk" country tier and no general de-minimis exemption exist, despite industry requests for both.
Penalties, and how enforcement works
Enforcement is staged, not immediate. A review of your documents and due-diligence system comes first. On-the-ground inspection, species/DNA testing, or satellite cross-checks only follow if that review raises real questions (Art. 18).
Screening, not certification
Everything above is the regulation itself, not this product. EUDR Screening gives you a fast, satellite-based first read on where your supplier exposure sits. It feeds into your own Art. 10 risk assessment; it isn't a substitute for it, and it isn't a Due Diligence Statement.
See pricing, or how a screening report's fields relate to an actual DDS filing on our DDS / TRACES NT mapping page.