The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), set to take effect for large companies on 30 December 2025 and for SMEs by 30 June 2026, is one of the most ambitious environmental due diligence regimes ever introduced. Designed to eliminate deforestation-linked goods from the EU single market, it targets commodities including palm oil, cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, coffee, and rubber—as well as derived products like leather, furniture, paper, and chocolate.
But with a growing wave of regulatory complexity and a complex network of global supply chains, compliance officers face a moving target when it comes to deforestation regulations. Despite the slimmed-down regulation, the compliance burden is still significant, and the quality of supplier onboarding could make or break your EUDR compliance efforts.
What the EUDR requires
At its core, the EUDR mandates that any covered product must meet three key conditions:
- Deforestation-free: Products derived from commodities covered by EUDR can only be placed on or exported from the EU market if they are free from deforestation
- Legally produced: The product must comply with all applicable laws in the country of origin—including environmental, human rights, and land use laws.
- Due diligence statement submitted: A company must complete data collection, risk assessment, and mitigation, and then submit a due diligence statement to the EU Information System before the goods are placed on the market.
Even SMEs, which enjoy a later deadline and some streamlined requirements, must retain reference numbers and product traceability information and be prepared to supply it to competent authorities.
Penalties for non-compliance include fines of up to 4% of turnover, exclusion from procurement, seizure of goods, and public naming on the EU Commission’s website.
Changes to the EUDR and current requirements
The European Commission, facing pressure from businesses and political shifts following the 2024 EU Parliament elections, has already rolled out a package of simplification measures. These include:
- Allowing annual submission of due diligence statements (rather than batch-by-batch).
- Permitting reuse of statements for previously placed goods.
- Letting companies rely on reference numbers from suppliers, streamlining downstream reporting.
- Creating a risk benchmarking system to label countries as low, standard, or high risk.
Despite this easing, compliance obligations remain intensive. Companies importing from high-risk countries (currently four countries are high risk: Belarus, Myanmar, North Korea, and Russia) face checks on 9% of transactions; those sourcing from standard-risk countries like Brazil or Indonesia face 3% checks.
What the EUDR means for your supply chain
The biggest practical challenge is traceability. Companies must geolocate where the commodity was produced within six-decimal GPS precision. For plots over 4 hectares, polygon mapping is mandatory. In cattle supply chains, this includes every establishment where the animal was raised.
Without a robust supplier onboarding and data management system, ensuring deforestation-free origins is nearly impossible. The regulation requires knowing your supplier’s land use history, documentation integrity, and their suppliers, too.
SME data collection obligations under the EUDR
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) placing relevant products on the EU market must collect and retain key supply chain information. This includes:
- Their own name, trademark, and postal address
- The same details for all operators or traders who supplied the products
- Reference numbers of any associated due diligence statements
SMEs must also gather this information from any businesses they supply onwards.
If a due diligence statement is required, SMEs must comply with the regulation by collecting:
- A description of the product
- Quantity of goods
- Country of production
- Precise geolocation data for all plots of land where commodities were grown
- Details of all supply chain actors, both upstream and downstream
- Verifiable proof that the products are deforestation-free and legally produced
Even when a due diligence statement isn’t mandatory, SMEs may still be required to pass this information to operators further up the supply chain. All data must be kept for at least five years and made available to authorities on request. If any new, credible information about potential non-compliance emerges, SMEs must immediately notify the relevant EU member state authorities.
How VinciWorks can help through exceptional supplier onboarding
The interconnectedness of modern supply chains means that non-compliance anywhere becomes liability everywhere. Even if your company is not placing products directly on the EU market, being part of a non-compliant supply chain could result in exclusion or reputational damage.
And for businesses managing thousands of SKUs or sourcing across multiple jurisdictions, manual due diligence simply won’t scale. Digitalising onboarding, risk tracking, and declaration management is no longer optional.
This is where VinciWorks’ supplier onboarding tool becomes critical. VinciWorks’ supplier onboarding solution offers a ready-made infrastructure to navigate the EUDR’s demands without drowning in spreadsheets or manual compliance burdens.
Designed to automate and streamline onboarding for complex international supply chains, the tool enables compliance teams to:
- Collect supplier data at scale, including declarations, documentation, and geolocation details.
- Track risk by country and commodity, aligning with the EU’s benchmarking system.
- Centralise due diligence references, allowing easy access to the required EUDR reference numbers.
- Integrate VSS schemes like FSC, RSPO or Rainforest Alliance, which are recognised as supporting tools under EUDR, but require scrutiny and validation before use.
- Manage supplier attestations, customising declarations to confirm no deforestation, legal production, and adherence to local rights laws.
With a user-friendly dashboard and automated workflows, the VinciWorks system allows larger organisations to meet due diligence requirements while supporting smaller suppliers in achieving compliance. This is essential for businesses sourcing from SMEs in high-deforestation-risk countries.
Ready to future-proof your supply chain? Learn how VinciWorks can help you align with EUDR.
