Resources · FAQ
EUDR questions, answered plainly.
The questions small coffee and cocoa importers ask us most, with straight answers. Where the regulation is easy to misread (the simplified declaration, who’s liable, whether one flagged plot stops a container), we say what it actually requires.
What the EUDR is
What is the EUDR?
The EUDR is the EU Deforestation Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. It bans placing on the EU market (or exporting from it) commodities linked to deforestation after the 31 December 2020 cut-off date. It covers cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood, plus some derived products. We focus on coffee and cocoa.
What is a DDS?
A DDS is a Due Diligence Statement: the declaration an operator submits through the EU’s EUDR Information System (the EUDR tool within the TRACES platform) before placing a covered product on the market. It confirms that due diligence was carried out and that the goods are deforestation-free and legally produced. The system issues a reference number, and a verification number, that your buyers and the authorities may ask for.
Can I rely on Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade certification instead?
No. Certification schemes can support your due diligence, but the EUDR does not accept any certificate as a substitute for it. You still need to gather plot geolocation, assess deforestation risk, and file your own DDS. A certificate is evidence you can draw on, not a filing you can skip.
Operator or trader?
Am I an operator or a trader?
If you are the party that first places the coffee or cocoa on the EU market (for example, an EU business importing beans from a non-EU country), you are the operator, and the duty to exercise due diligence and file the DDS is yours. A trader sits further down the chain: a small or micro trader mainly collects and passes on the DDS reference numbers it received, while a larger trader carries due-diligence obligations closer to an operator’s. Most small coffee and cocoa importers are operators. Check which you are →
Does the 2025 “simplified declaration” apply to me?
Almost certainly not, but not for the reason people assume. The simplified declaration is restricted to small and micro primary operators: essentially producers placing on the market goods they produced themselves, in countries benchmarked low-risk. An EU business importing someone else’s coffee or cocoa is not a primary operator, so it does not qualify, regardless of the origin country’s risk classification. You still file a full DDS with plot-level geolocation.
Who is liable under the EUDR?
The operator. The legal responsibility for the due diligence and the DDS stays with the operator at all times. Appointing an Authorised Representative to prepare and file the statement does not move that liability. Anyone who tells you their service removes your legal risk is misdescribing the regulation; what a good service gives you is due diligence thorough enough to stand behind.
Deadlines, filing & the system
What’s the deadline for small importers?
As it currently stands, micro and small enterprises must comply from 30 June 2027, while large and medium operators and traders start from 30 December 2026. Small importers are our focus, so the 2027 date is the one to anchor on. See the EUDR deadlines, kept current.
What if the deadline moves again?
It might. The dates have shifted before, so treat them as the current position rather than a fixed promise. It doesn’t change what you should do now: the geolocation and record work is far easier to get in order early than in a rush, and nothing prepared is wasted if the date moves. The direction of travel is clear.
What is TRACES, and the “EUDR Information System”?
The European Commission runs a dedicated EUDR Information System (a specialised tool within the TRACES platform) as the place Due Diligence Statements are filed. You, or your Authorised Representative, submit the DDS there, and it returns the reference and verification numbers that downstream buyers and enforcement authorities can request.
When must the DDS be filed?
Before you place the goods on the EU market, and in practice, the DDS reference has to be available to customs before your import can be released for free circulation. It isn’t something to leave to the last container; the due-diligence work behind it takes time to assemble.
Do I need an EORI number?
If you import into the EU, you already operate under an EORI number, and for a standard import it forms part of your operator registration in the EUDR Information System. You don’t need to obtain anything new for us; we’ll tell you exactly what’s required for your filing.
How long do I have to keep records?
The EUDR requires that your DDS and the due-diligence information behind it be kept for five years from the date the statement was made. In practice the geolocation, the risk assessment, and the evidence should be stored together and stay retrievable, which is exactly what the dossier we hand you is for.
Plots, geolocation & assessment
What geolocation is required?
The geolocation of every plot of land where the coffee or cocoa was produced. A plot of 4 hectares or less may be given as a single point with an area figure; a plot larger than 4 hectares must be given as a polygon. Coordinates are recorded to at least six decimal places: a coordinate-format requirement, not a promise that the field measurement itself is accurate to that level.
My producers only have a point location, not a field boundary. Is that enough?
For plots of 4 hectares or less, yes. A point plus the area is what the regulation asks. Above 4 hectares you’ll need a polygon. Getting usable coordinates out of a producer network is often the real work of a filing, and it’s the part we help you structure rather than leave you to solve alone.
Will my shade-grown or agroforestry coffee get falsely flagged?
This is exactly the problem our method is built around. A single tree-cover map can mistake the pruning and replanting of shade trees for forest loss. We cross-read several authoritative sources to help distinguish that ordinary management from genuine post-2020 conversion, and anything ambiguous goes to a person for review rather than an automatic fail.
What happens if a plot is flagged: does my whole container stop?
It depends what the flag is. A review signal from our assessment is not a finding of non-compliance: an ambiguous satellite signal is sent to a human to look at, and doesn’t by itself stop a shipment. Confirmed post-2020 deforestation on a plot is different: under the regulation, product from that plot cannot be placed on the EU market. And if that plot’s output has already been mixed into a lot and can’t be traceably separated, you can’t simply file the rest as clean. We surface this early, per plot, so it’s a decision you make before a container is standing at the border.
Working with glebora
How does glebora help?
We carry the whole due diligence behind your filing. You send your plots, your import details and the supplier documents only you can provide; we build the due-diligence file, assess every plot for post-2020 deforestation, structure and assess your legal-production evidence, weigh the risk, and file the DDS in the EUDR Information System as your Authorised Representative under your operator identity, then hand you a documented, cross-referenced dossier to keep. The work becomes a short, repeatable routine.
How is your deforestation assessment done?
It’s type-aware and multi-source. We read a 2020 baseline forest map together with a post-2020 tree-cover change layer and a layer that classifies whether a disturbance was genuine deforestation or the ordinary management of a tree-crop system. No single map is treated as binding; we cross-read them to help distinguish real conversion from shade management, and surface anything ambiguous for a person rather than passing or failing it silently.
What do you need from me to start?
The plots and their coordinates as your producers have them; your product and quantity; the country and production period; your supplier details; the documents your suppliers hold on legal production; your import and EORI details; and a short signed mandate appointing us as your Authorised Representative. You bring the supply chain only you have. We carry it from there.
Do you file under your name or mine?
Always yours. You remain the operator identified in the statement; we submit it on your behalf as your separately appointed Authorised Representative, under your operator identity, never our own. Article 6 of the regulation explicitly allows this.
What happens if you find non-negligible risk?
We don’t file over it. Where the assessment shows more than negligible risk, we tell you precisely what needs closing and how (additional evidence, a better boundary, a supplier question) and file once the risk is addressed. A statement filed over an open risk is one that won’t hold if it’s ever examined.
How do you protect my supplier and plot data?
Your supplier list and plot coordinates are commercially sensitive, and we treat them that way. We use your data only to prepare and file your DDS, we don’t share it or repurpose it, and we keep it siloed to your account and retained for the period the regulation requires. Your sourcing network stays yours.
How are you different from the self-serve EUDR software tools?
Software gives you a login and leaves the work with you: you still chase the polygons and documents, decide whether a satellite flag is real, and file the statement yourself. We do that work: the assessment, the risk, and the filing as your EU-established Authorised Representative, delivered as a done-for-you service rather than a dashboard to operate.
What does it cost?
It’s sized to your supply chain, not a flat licence. Our pricing page sets out the indicative bands and how a quote is built, and the best first step is a free readiness check on one sample plot.
Didn’t find your question?
Ask us directly.
Tell us what you import and where from, and we’ll walk you through exactly what your filing would involve.