EUDR Commodities: Which Products Are Covered and What Your Business Must Do

EUDR commodities soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, cattle, rubber, and wood must be proven deforestation-free to enter the EU market. Businesses that import or export these commodities must collect farm-level GPS data, run risk assessments, and file a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) via TRACES NT before placing products on the EU market. Large operators deadline: December 30, 2026. SMEs: June 30, 2027. Non-compliance risks include blocked shipments, fines up to 4% of annual turnover, and permanent market access loss.

EUDR commodities including soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, cattle, rubber, and wood are at the centre of one of the most significant supply chain regulations the EU has ever introduced. If your business sources, processes, imports, or exports any of these commodities into the EU market, this regulation applies to you directly. And if you’re not already building a compliance programme, you’re running out of time.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (Regulation EU 2023/1115) came into force in June 2023 with a clear mandate: eliminate deforestation-linked products from European supply chains. It requires every operator placing covered commodities on the EU market to prove their products are deforestation-free, legally produced, and traceable all the way back to the exact plot of land where they were grown or harvested.

This blog breaks down every EUDR-covered commodity, what compliance looks like in practice, the penalties for non-compliance, and how TraceX is helping businesses across the supply chain meet their obligations without disrupting operations.

90%

of global forest loss is driven by agricultural expansion the primary target of EUDR regulation (World Resources Institute)

EUDR Commodities: The 7 High-Risk Categories You Need to Know

EUDR commodities are defined in Annex I of Regulation EU 2023/1115 as products whose production has been historically linked to deforestation and forest degradation. The regulation covers both raw commodities and their derived products meaning the compliance obligation extends far beyond farmers and exporters to include processors, traders, manufacturers, and importers.

The 7 EUDR commodity categories are:

• Soy
• Palm oil
• Coffee
• Cocoa
• Cattle (beef and leather)
• Wood and timber
• Rubber

Importantly, derived products containing these commodities are also covered. A chocolate bar, a piece of furniture, or a palm oil-based cosmetic if it contains any Annex I commodity, it falls within the EUDR scope.

EUDR Commodities Scope: Full Breakdown by Category

Using the wrong HSN code could put your EUDR compliance at risk.

Read our blog: “EUDR HSN Codes Explained: A Guide to Product Classification and Compliance.”

EUDR Commodities Explained: What Each Sector Needs to Know

EUDR commodities carry different compliance challenges depending on the supply chain structure, sourcing geography, and product complexity. Here is what compliance means for each category.

EUDR Commodities: Soy Compliance Requirements

Soy is one of the highest-risk EUDR commodities due to its central role in animal feed and its direct link to large-scale deforestation in South America. The regulation captures not just raw soya beans but the entire downstream product chain including tofu, soy milk, soy protein, and soybean oil.

Is your soy supply chain ready for EUDR?

Read our blog: “EUDR Compliance for Soy Supply Chains: What Businesses Need to Know.”

For soy importers, the core obligation is demonstrating that every batch of product traces to farmland that was not deforested after December 31, 2020. Given that soy supply chains often pass through trading companies and aggregation points, achieving farm-level traceability requires digital tools that can collect GPS data at source and maintain chain-of-custody through processing.

EUDR Commodities: Palm Oil Compliance Requirements

Palm oil has been one of the largest single drivers of deforestation globally, and it appears across an extraordinary range of industries food, cosmetics, biodiesel, and personal care products. Whether your business is placing palm oil in a food product or using it as a feedstock for biofuel, EUDR compliance for Palm Oil is mandatory.

For palm oil traders and processors, the challenge is plantation-level traceability across fragmented sourcing geographies in Indonesia, Malaysia, and West Africa. Buyers must ensure that every palm fruit cluster traces back to a mapped, verified, deforestation-free plantation and that this data is captured in a form that supports DDS filing via TRACES NT.

EUDR Commodities: Coffee Compliance Requirements

Coffee brings a compliance challenge that most importers underestimate: the vast majority of global coffee is grown by smallholder farmers across fragmented landscapes in Ethiopia, Colombia, Vietnam, Brazil, and beyond. Collecting accurate GPS data from millions of small plots is operationally demanding without a digital platform.

Coffee companies sourcing through cooperatives, exporters, or traders must ensure their due diligence reaches back to the individual farm level. Certifications like Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade are not sufficient the EUDR requires geo-verified, satellite-confirmed deforestation-free sourcing backed by a formal DDS.

Are you a coffee exporter preparing for EUDR?

Read our blog: “Essential EUDR Tools for Coffee Exporters: Building a Compliant and Traceable Supply Chain.”

4M+ Hectares

of tropical forests in SE Asia lost to rubber plantations in the past 30 years driving EUDR’s rubber compliance mandate (Carbon Brief)

EUDR Commodities: Cocoa Compliance Requirements

Cocoa is one of the most scrutinised EUDR commodities due to the significant overlap between cocoa-growing regions and high deforestation risk zones particularly in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together supply over 60% of the world’s cocoa. Companies across the chocolate, confectionery, and food ingredient supply chain are directly affected.

For cocoa operators, polygon-level farm mapping is becoming standard practice for compliance a single GPS point per farm is often insufficient to satisfy the geolocation verification requirements that competent EU authorities expect to see. The scale of smallholder sourcing makes this technically challenging without purpose-built traceability infrastructure.

Exporting cocoa to the EU? EUDR compliance starts at the farm.

Read our blog: “EUDR Compliance for Cocoa Supply Chains: What Exporters Need to Know.”

EUDR Commodities: Cattle (Beef and Leather) Compliance Requirements

Cattle is the only EUDR commodity with direct animal origin, which creates unique compliance dynamics. Operators placing beef, leather goods, or processed cattle products on the EU market must trace sourcing back to the farm where the animal was raised and verify that the pastureland was not deforested after December 31, 2020.

The challenge for importers of beef from Brazil and other high-risk origins is the complexity of cattle movements between farms before slaughter. A cattle hide sold into the leather supply chain may have passed through multiple properties each of which requires verification. Digital traceability platforms that support farm-of-origin documentation are critical for managing this at scale.

EUDR Commodities: Wood and Timber Compliance Requirements

Wood and timber have the most diverse product footprint of any EUDR commodity category. The regulation covers not just raw lumber but furniture, paper, flooring, plywood, wooden packaging, and any other product containing wood. If your company imports wooden products of any kind, EUDR Wood compliance applies.

For timber operators, the compliance foundation is legal harvest verification proving that wood was harvested in accordance with the laws of the source country including land rights, environmental regulations, and tenure. This requires documentary evidence alongside geolocation data for every harvest plot.

EUDR Commodities: Rubber Compliance Requirements

Natural rubber and rubber-derived products including tyres, gloves, latex-based goods, and adhesives must meet the same deforestation-free and traceability standards as all other EUDR commodities. The challenge for the rubber supply chain is the concentration of smallholder producers in Southeast Asia and the aggregation model used by most latex processing facilities.

Rubber operators must trace sourcing back to plantation-level GPS coordinates and verify that no forest clearance occurred after the December 2020 cut-off date. Blockchain-backed traceability tools are increasingly being used to create immutable records from plantation to port.

Exporting natural rubber or rubber products to the EU?

Read our blog: “EUDR Compliance for Rubber Supply Chains: What Exporters, Manufacturers, and Traders Need to Know.”

EUDR Commodities Compliance: What You Are Required to Do

Regardless of which EUDR commodities your business handles, the core compliance obligations are consistent. Here is what the regulation requires and what auditors will look for.

EUDR Commodities: Due Diligence Statement Requirements

The Due Diligence Statement (DDS) is the formal compliance document that every operator must file before placing EUDR-covered commodities on the EU market. It must be submitted through the EU TRACES NT system and must reference GPS-verified geolocation data, product descriptions, volumes, country of origin, and the outcome of your risk assessment.

Filing a DDS with missing or inaccurate information is one of the most common causes of shipment rejection. Operators must ensure that DDS submissions are complete, accurate, and backed by auditable source data maintained for a minimum of five years.

Filing your EUDR Due Diligence Statement (DDS) doesn’t have to be complicated.

Read our blog: “How to File an EUDR Due Diligence Statement (DDS): A Step-by-Step Guide.”

EUDR Commodities Non-Compliance: What Happens If You Fail

EUDR commodities that cannot be proven deforestation-free will be denied entry to the EU market. But the penalties for non-compliance go significantly further than blocked shipments:

• Fines up to 4% of annual EU turnover for operators
• Confiscation of non-compliant products and revenue derived from them
• Temporary exclusion from public procurement processes
• Mandatory publication of enforcement decisions creating reputational exposure
• Potential criminal liability for intentional non-compliance

For businesses with significant EU market exposure, the financial and reputational risk of non-compliance far exceeds the cost of building a robust traceability and due diligence system. The question is no longer whether to invest in EUDR compliance it is how to do so efficiently before enforcement deadlines arrive.

Dec 30, 2026

Enforcement deadline for large operators and traders. SMEs: June 30, 2027. Missing the deadline means blocked market access.

EUDR Commodities Compliance with TraceX: How It Works

TraceX EUDR Solutions provide an end-to-end compliance platform built specifically for EUDR-regulated supply chains. Whether you are sourcing one EUDR commodity or managing compliance across multiple categories, TraceX gives you the tools to meet every obligation without disrupting your operations.

EUDR Commodities Geolocation Mapping

TraceX enables farm-level polygon mapping at scale capturing GPS coordinates for every sourcing plot, whether from smallholder farmers, large plantations, or complex aggregation networks. Satellite-based deforestation verification is built into the platform, automatically flagging any sourcing area linked to post-2020 forest loss.

EUDR Commodities Risk Assessment Automation

Manual risk assessments across diverse sourcing geographies are resource-intensive and error-prone. TraceX automates risk scoring using country risk benchmarks, satellite data, and supplier profiles giving compliance teams a clear, auditable output that supports DDS preparation without requiring analysts to review each record manually.

EUDR Commodities DDS Generation and TRACES Filing

TraceX generates TRACES NT-ready Due Diligence Statements directly from the platform pulling verified geolocation data, product information, risk assessment outputs, and supplier documentation into a single compliant document. DDS submissions are traceable, timestamped, and stored for the mandatory five-year retention period.

EUDR Commodities Supplier Onboarding

One of the most operationally complex challenges for EUDR compliance is bringing suppliers into the data collection process particularly when working with smallholder networks in low-connectivity environments. TraceX supports digital and offline supplier onboarding, enabling farm-level data collection even in the field without consistent internet access.

What does it take to make a global tire supply chain EUDR-ready?

Discover how a leading tire manufacturer transformed its natural rubber supply chain to meet the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). By implementing end-to-end traceability, plot-level geolocation mapping, supplier engagement, and robust due diligence processes, the company strengthened compliance while protecting uninterrupted access to the European market.

Read the case study to see how digital traceability helped turn EUDR compliance into a competitive advantage.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)