The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)

Requirements, impacts, and practical implementation

This white paper is written for companies that are affected by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), whether directly or through their supply chains. It is especially relevant for teams involved in sourcing, supply chain management, compliance, IT, and sustainability, along with business leaders in retail and manufacturing.

EUDR introduces tougher expectations for supply chain visibility, traceability, and proof of compliance. Its impact extends to companies that import, sell, process, or export in-scope commodities and products, as well as to the business functions responsible for making sure those requirements are met in practice.

For affected organizations, the challenge is no longer theoretical. They need to show, with confidence, where relevant materials come from, how they have been handled, and how they enter or move through the market. Complying with EUDR is not just a matter of checking documentation boxes. It depends on accurate data, repeatable processes, and strong coordination with suppliers and other partners across the supply chain. That is why the regulation reaches beyond compliance and into the day-to-day management of supply chain operations.

This white paper breaks down the key EUDR requirements, identifies the business roles most affected, and explains why data, data quality, and integration are essential for effective implementation. It also examines how companies can meet regulatory expectations without sacrificing operational efficiency, while creating digital processes that are built to scale. Starting early and taking a structured approach can help reduce risk, support reliable compliance, and improve transparency across the supply chain.

With the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), companies face growing pressure to ensure that relevant commodities, products, and supply chains are documented in a transparent, traceable, and compliant manner. What begins as a regulatory requirement quickly becomes an operational challenge that extends well beyond the collection of individual records. Companies need reliable information on origin, clearly defined responsibilities, consistent data, and auditable processes that span internal functions and external business partners.

For many organizations, this is where real complexity begins. EUDR-relevant information is generated at multiple points across the supply chain, stored in different systems, and often managed by different stakeholders. To support risk assessment, documentation, and defensible compliance, these data points must be connected in a consistent and reliable way. As a result, complying with the regulation requires more than regulatory interpretation and subject matter expertise. It also depends on a solid foundation for transparency, data quality, and cross-organizational collaboration.

90%

of global deforestation is linked to agricultural expansion.¹

80 million

hectares of primary forest have been lost worldwide since 1990.²

90%

of global deforestation occurred in tropical forests between 2000 and 2018.³

A significant share of this development is tied to global demand for agricultural commodities and the products derived from them. The European Union is one of the key markets for goods associated with deforestation. The most relevant commodities in this context include soy, palm oil, cattle, wood, cocoa, coffee, and rubber.

The purpose of EUDR is to ensure that relevant products are deforestation-free. This applies to products placed on the EU market, made available within the EU, or exported from the EU. At the same time, those products must comply with the applicable laws of the country of production. In this way, the regulation connects environmental objectives with specific corporate due diligence and proof-of-compliance obligations.

For companies, this goes beyond simply meeting regulatory requirements. EUDR raises expectations for transparency, traceability, and the quality of supply chain data. As a result, what may once have been treated primarily as a sustainability issue now becomes an enterprise-wide responsibility, with direct implications for procurement, supply chain management, compliance, and IT.

The regulation is intended to ensure that certain commodities and products placed on the EU market, made available within the EU, or exported from the EU are deforestation-free. They must not originate from land that has been deforested after the relevant cut-off date, and they must have been produced in compliance with the applicable laws of the country of production.

EUDR is also intended to reduce the EU’s contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation. As a major consumer market, the EU explicitly aims to reduce its impact on supply chains linked to deforestation.

Beyond deforestation itself, the regulation supports broader environmental objectives. It is intended to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global loss of biodiversity.

These companies are subject to the most extensive due diligence and documentation requirements. They must be able to demonstrate that the products are deforestation-free, comply with applicable laws in the country of production, and are covered by a due diligence statement.

For these businesses, the focus is on ensuring that existing documentation, reference numbers, and product information are accurately captured, properly maintained, and passed along. Here as well, traceability remains essential.

This includes procurement, supply chain, compliance, and IT. These teams help ensure that supplier data, product information, documentation, and workflows come together in a way that allows EUDR requirements to be met in practice. This role is driven by the regulation’s underlying due diligence, documentation, and evidentiary obligations.

Companies must be able to show where in-scope commodities and products come from. This requires reliable supply chain data, including information on country of origin and the specific areas of production involved. It is not enough to describe origin in general terms. The source must be documented in a clear and verifiable way.

Based on the available information, companies must evaluate whether there is a risk that products are linked to deforestation, forest degradation, or violations of applicable laws in the country of production.

The results of that assessment must not only be maintained internally but also submitted through the EU information system. Before a product is placed on the market, made available, or exported, a due diligence statement must be filed. This is the formal regulatory step that documents compliance with the due diligence obligation.

Depending on how penalties are implemented at the national level, non-compliance may result in fines, confiscation of affected goods, restrictions on market access, and exclusion from public procurement opportunities and funding programs.

Data as a core requirement for EUDR compliance

Successful EUDR implementation depends largely on the quality, availability, and connectivity of the underlying data. Compliance does not hinge on isolated data points, but on a consistent and audit-ready data foundation that supports reliable reviews, sound risk assessments, and defensible documentation. In this context, data should be viewed as a process. It must be identified, consolidated, validated, and translated into information that supports action.

Capture all relevant data

EUDR requires a structured approach to collecting all relevant information. This includes data on products and commodities, suppliers and country of origin, affected plots of land, and supporting records and documentation. Only a complete and systematic data set provides the foundation for sound assessments, traceable decisions, and compliant reporting.

Consolidate data and connect it in context

In most cases, data is spread across multiple systems and sourced from different points along the supply chain. To be usable in a reliable way, that information must be brought together, clearly assigned, and connected within a consistent business context. This step is essential for creating a dependable basis for assessment, documentation, and regulatory assurance.

Ensure data quality and integrity

For EUDR purposes, data availability alone is not enough. The information must be complete, consistent, current, and auditable. Gaps, inconsistencies, or outdated records undermine the integrity of the overall data foundation. Maintaining data quality therefore becomes a critical requirement for credible assessments and reliable proof of compliance.

Use data to support decision making

Once relevant information is available in a consistent format; data becomes the basis for operational and regulatory decision-making. It enables companies to determine whether risks exist, whether the available information is sufficient, and whether products meet the requirements for compliant market access. In that sense, data forms the basis of due diligence.

Make data available as evidence

Ultimately, information must do more than exist internally. It must also be documented in a way that allows it to serve as credible evidence. Data therefore serves a dual purpose: it supports decisions throughout the process and provides the basis for transparency toward regulators, business partners, and internal control functions.

EUDR places demands not only on the content of data, but also on its availability, consistency, and evidentiary value. In practice, however, the required information is typically scattered across multiple environments, including ERP platforms, supplier portals, document management systems, logistics applications, and external data sources.

Integration is therefore a critical enabler for bringing EUDR-relevant information together across systems, assigning it clearly to the right products and supply chain relationships, and making it usable for assessment, documentation, and reporting. This requirement follows directly from the logic of EUDR itself. Due diligence statements must be supported by a range of data points, including product information, quantities, country of origin, geolocation data, and information related to suppliers and supporting evidence.

ERP systems

For many companies, ERP systems are the primary source of EUDR-relevant master and transactional data. They typically contain information on products, materials, suppliers, quantities, batches, purchase orders, and goods movements. In the context of EUDR, they serve as a key starting point for identifying in-scope products and linking them to supporting documentation and origin-related information.

Supply chain and logistics systems

These systems provide additional data on transportation, shipments, goods receipts, and material flows. For EUDR purposes, they help establish relationships of origin, trace movements across the supply chain, and connect relevant information to specific product flows in a transparent and verifiable way.

Document management and content systems

These systems store certificates, declarations, supporting documents, and other document-based records. Within the EUDR context, they are an important source of information because required evidence does not exist solely in structured data sets. It is often also contained in accompanying documents. Connecting these systems is therefore essential for meeting the regulation’s documentation and proof-of-compliance requirements in full.

Supplier portals

Supplier portals play a central role when EUDR-relevant information is provided by business partners. This may include data on origin, land-related information, documents, or reference details. As a result, they are a key component in bringing external data into the company’s EUDR data foundation.

Product data and master data systems

These systems provide the basis for consistently classifying and referencing relevant products. In the EUDR context, this includes product classifications, commodity codes, material master data, and other structured reference information needed to align data from different sources accurately and unambiguously.

From a technical perspective, integration is what turns fragmented information into a consistent EUDR data foundation. It enables data from different systems to be brought together, aligned correctly in a business context, and connected across the end-to-end process. This makes information not only available, but also auditable and operationally usable.

Integration also strengthens data quality. It reduces manual handoffs, avoids duplicate maintenance, improves consistency across applications, and creates the foundation for reliable reporting. In that sense, integration is a critical factor in meeting EUDR requirements not through isolated system views, but through a connected and end-to-end information model.

Bringing data together across systems

Integration connects product data, supplier information, land-related data, quantity information, and supporting documents from different sources into a consistent business context. This turns fragmented data points into a usable foundation for EUDR compliance.

Creating clear and reliable data relationships

Relevant data must be tied unambiguously to the correct product, quantity, supplier, plot of land, and, where applicable, an existing reference number. Integration enables these connections across master data, transactional data, and compliance records.

Supporting data quality in day-to-day operations

A reliable data foundation requires more than collecting information. It depends on systematically verifying completeness, consistency, and usability. Integration supports this by standardizing data flows, enforcing required fields, reducing duplicates, and identifying discrepancies early.

Ultimately, EUDR-relevant information must not only be internally consistent, but also usable for reporting and formal proof of compliance. This includes submitting the due diligence statement through the EU information system, including key information such as the product, HS or Combined Nomenclature code, quantity, origin and geolocation data, as well as the results of the risk assessment and any mitigation measures. It also includes the use of reference numbers and the ability to provide relevant information to downstream partners, authorities, and customs processes. The rules governing the information system make clear that it is designed to support companies, customs authorities, and other competent authorities in meeting their obligations.

EUDR raises the bar for transparency, traceability, and legal compliance across the supply chain. It goes well beyond a formal compliance exercise, requiring audit-ready documentation, consistent data, and reliable processes that extend across internal functions and external partners.

For companies, the key challenge is to treat these requirements not as isolated regulatory tasks, but as part of a broader operational mandate. What matters is a data foundation that enables information to be captured completely, connected consistently, assessed reliably, and documented in a way that stands up to scrutiny. Only then can due diligence obligations be met with confidence and regulatory risk reduced effectively.

At the same time, EUDR can serve as a catalyst for strengthening supply chain transparency, traceability, and process reliability. A structured and proactive approach not only supports regulatory compliance, but also creates the conditions for more efficient operations, stronger partner collaboration, and a digitally resilient supply chain.

To translate regulatory requirements into operational readiness, companies should focus on five core workstreams:

Product and supplier master data
Ensure that relevant product, material, supplier, and classification data is complete, consistent, and available across systems.
Plot or geolocation capture and validation
Establish processes to collect, validate, and maintain the plot-level or geolocation data required for affected raw materials and products.
Document evidence linking
Make sure that certificates, declarations, supporting documents, and other evidence can be clearly linked to the relevant products, suppliers, and shipments.
Integration and data quality controls
Connect data sources across systems and partners while implementing controls for completeness, consistency, traceability, and exception handling.
Due diligence statement workflow, submission, and retrieval
Build a reliable process for preparing, submitting, referencing, and retrieving due diligence statements and related compliance information through the EU information system.

Meeting EUDR requirements depends on bringing together relevant information from multiple systems, processes, and partner networks in a consistent and usable way. SEEBURGER supports this with the Business Integration Suite (BIS). As an integration platform, BIS connects applications and processes across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments, creating the foundation for managing EUDR-relevant data flows across systems.

BIS helps companies address key technical and process-related requirements of EUDR:

Connect systems and data sources: BIS supports the integration of ERP systems, cloud services, APIs, and B2B/EDI processes, making it possible to consolidate EUDR-relevant information from distributed environments.
Integrate business partners: The platform connects customers, suppliers, and other partners to digital processes, supporting the structured exchange of data and documentation across the supply chain.
Standardize and automate data flows: By automating integration and business processes, companies can reduce manual handoffs, streamline information flows, and improve data consistency.
Create a reliable foundation for documentation and reporting: By connecting distributed data sources, BIS helps establish a consistent information base that supports EUDR-related assessment, documentation, and reporting.

This enables companies to address EUDR requirements not in isolated systems, but through an integrated data and process landscape.

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