EUDR Countdown: 3 Months Left for Companies Exporting to the EU

From 30 December 2026, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR, EU 2023/1115) applies to large and medium enterprises: wood, wood products, paper, rubber, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, soy and cattle-related products cannot clear EU customs without a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) reference number.

⏳ Why "now" is the last window

Many business owners think: "It only takes effect at the end of December — November will do." That is the most dangerous misjudgment. EUDR compliance is not filling in a form; it is building a complete chain of evidence:

1. Supply chain mapping — tracing your finished goods back to the point of origin, with documentation for every supplier in between. A wood products factory typically has dozens of upstream suppliers; collecting the data alone takes 2-4 weeks;
2. Plot geolocation collection — WGS-84 coordinates for every raw-material plot (polygons above 4 hectares). Converting forestry-permit boundary descriptions, plus field verification, easily takes weeks; this is the most time-consuming step by common consent;
3. Deforestation-free evidence — historical satellite imagery comparison against the 31 December 2020 baseline to prove no deforestation or degradation;
4. Documentation and a DDS dry run — SOPs, due diligence procedures, registration with the EU information system and a first trial submission.

For even the best-prepared company, all four steps take 8-12 weeks. And late December is the European Christmas shipping peak — your effective working time is really about 10 weeks.

📋 Are your products in scope? (60-second self-check)

• Your product HS codes fall within EUDR Annex I — wooden furniture, panels, paper and paperboard, wooden toys, printing paper, tyres and rubber products, chocolate, coffee, soybean meal and more are all covered;
• You export to an EU member state (or know your downstream customer ultimately sells into the EU);
• Your company is medium-sized or larger (over 50 employees, or turnover above EUR 10 million equivalent — note that EUDR roles are assessed across the upstream chain, so the answer is broader than you might think).

If any one of the three applies, your goods are in scope, and you will need a DDS from 30 December 2026.

🛠️ Four steps to get ready (start this week)

1. Map your supply chain (week 1): chart the full flow from finished goods → semi-finished → raw material, marking every supplier and country of origin;
2. Start coordinate collection (weeks 2-4): ask upstream for harvesting/plantation plot coordinates. They must be WGS-84 — China's GCJ-02 ("Mars coordinates") and Baidu coordinates submitted directly will be judged non-compliant;
3. Build the documentation (weeks 3-6): due diligence procedures, supplier assessment, risk classification, record-keeping rules — can run in parallel with coordinate collection;
4. Register and dry-run the DDS (weeks 7-8): register on the EU information system and walk a trial shipment through your first statement.

🎯 Final word: move before your customer forces you to

Over the next three months you will hear the question more and more often in emails from Europe: "Is your EUDR compliance ready? Can you provide a DDS number?" If you only start when a customer asks, the pace of your orders is controlled by someone else. Companies that finish compliance early turn it into a selling point instead.

If your factory gets stuck at any step — scope self-check, coordinate collection, or the DDS dry run — we have been doing EU supply chain compliance since the EUTR era of 2013. The pitfalls on this road are ones our clients no longer step in.