EU Deforestation Regulation Supplier Onboarding Template

Create one onboarding record per supplier legal entity and link it to the product rows and origins it supplies. Classify the role for the specific transaction: operator, downstream operator, trader, qualifying micro or small primary operator, or an upstream evidence provider outside those EU-market roles. A supplier's label or certificate does not decide the legal role.

Do not approve a supplier for an EUDR product flow until the record identifies who will provide Article 9 information, who will provide any due diligence statement reference number or simplified declaration identifier, and who owns updates when new risk information appears.

Supplier approval is an internal control, not an EUDR approval or transfer of responsibility. The operator must test the evidence for the relevant product flow and remains responsible when it submits the due diligence statement, even if a supplier or authorised representative supplied the data.

Supplier onboarding is not complete until every product the supplier may provide has an EUDR product-scope row. Use the supplier's commercial product name only as a starting point; the onboarding record should map the product to the relevant commodity family and the Annex I product line used by trade or customs master data.

The seven commodity families are cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood, with the derived products listed under them in Annex I. Keep out-of-scope conclusions separate from in-scope approvals so later purchases do not reuse the wrong evidence file.

Read Annex I together with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102, in force from 18 September 2026. Its product removals, exclusions and revised descriptions affect the scope match. Specific added products, including frozen cattle tongues and coffee extracts, separately apply from 30 December 2027. Record the exact amended entry, Combined Nomenclature (CN) code, product description and applicable date for each scope decision.

For each supplier-product row, collect the Article 9 origin record: country of production; geolocation of every production plot or cattle establishment; production date or time range; and adequately conclusive and verifiable information supporting deforestation-free and lawful production. For plots larger than four hectares used for commodities other than cattle, the geolocation is a perimeter polygon.

Treat a supplier's claim to the micro or small primary-operator route as an exception that requires evidence. Only a qualifying operator may replace Article 9 geolocation with the postal address of the plots or establishment, and the address must clearly correspond to the geographic location.

Operators must communicate associated statement reference numbers or declaration identifiers further down the supply chain. Downstream operators and traders must hold the Article 5 supplier and business-recipient details; collecting a reference or identifier is mandatory when the direct supplier is an operator. Record any additional voluntary reference handoff separately from that duty.

Use a separate row for each upstream statement reference, simplified declaration identifier, or evidence package. That prevents one supplier approval from being reused across products, production origins, or shipments it does not support.

Supplier approval should not be final while the risk conclusion is unresolved. The standard EUDR due diligence route includes information collection, risk assessment, and mitigation where risk is not negligible before placement or export. Article 13 permits qualifying low-risk production to omit Articles 10 and 11 only after the required complexity, circumvention, and mixing checks.

For Article 13, confirm low-risk production for every relevant input and retain documentation of negligible circumvention or mixing risk. If new information points to non-compliance or circumvention, perform Articles 10 and 11 and immediately communicate the information to the competent authority.

Close onboarding with records reusable for purchases, shipments, filing, downstream communication and authority requests. Operators retain due diligence documentation for at least five years and statement records for five years from submission. Downstream operators and traders retain Article 5 information for at least five years from placing, making available, or export.

Store the record at the supplier-product level, not only at the supplier level. A supplier may be approved for one commodity, product, origin, or DDS reference while another product row remains blocked.