EU Deforestation Regulation Supplier Onboarding Template

Create one onboarding record per supplier legal entity and link it to the product rows it supplies. Classify whether the supplier is acting as an operator, downstream operator, trader, micro or small primary operator, or upstream supplier that provides evidence for your own operator file.

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 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 grounding material identifies cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood as covered commodity families, together with derived products listed in Annex I. Keep out-of-scope conclusions separate from in-scope approvals so later purchases do not reuse the wrong evidence pack.

For each approved supplier-product row, collect production-origin evidence that can be tied back to the exact product flow. Article 9 grounding requires information and evidence that includes geolocation of plots of land or establishments and documentation supporting deforestation-free and legal production.

If a supplier claims the micro or small primary-operator simplified route, keep that claim as a labelled exception. The grounding material supports replacing Article 9 geolocation with postal address of plots of land or the establishment only for the qualifying micro or small primary-operator case.

The onboarding record should show how the supplier's evidence travels with the product. Downstream operators and traders need supply-chain information, and operators must communicate due diligence statement reference numbers or declaration identifiers further down the supply chain.

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 EUDR due diligence system includes information collection, risk assessment, and, where risk is not negligible, risk mitigation before the product is placed on the market or exported.

For production in countries or parts of countries classified as low risk, keep the supplier evidence that supports the simplified due diligence path. The grounding material still requires attention to supply-chain complexity and risks of circumvention or mixing before relying on that path.

Close onboarding with a record structure that can be reused for purchases, shipments, statement preparation, downstream communications, and authority questions. Operators keep due diligence statement records for five years, and downstream operators and traders keep Article 5 supply-chain information for at least five years.

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.