EUDR Supplier Guide

What suppliers, ranchers, and cooperatives need to provide for EU Deforestation Regulation compliance

1. Who Is This Guide For?

If you supply commodities covered by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) — cattle, soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, rubber, or wood — your EU buyers will ask you for geolocation data proving where your products were produced.

This guide explains what data you need to provide, in what format, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that delay compliance assessments.

EUDR in brief

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 requires operators placing covered commodities on the EU market to demonstrate that products were not produced on land subject to deforestation after 31 December 2020. Operators must submit a due-diligence statement with geolocation data for every production plot.

2. What "Geolocation of Production Plots" Means

Article 9 of the EUDR requires geolocation for every plot of land where the commodity (or derived product) was produced. In practice, this means:

  • For plots under 4 hectares: A single latitude/longitude coordinate point identifying the plot.
  • For plots of 4 hectares or more: A polygon boundary defining the perimeter of the plot. This must be precise enough to locate the plot unambiguously on a map.

"Plot of land" means the specific area used for production — not the whole farm, not the municipality, not an approximate region. If a ranch has 10,000 hectares but only 3,000 hectares are used for cattle grazing, the geolocation must identify those 3,000 hectares specifically.

3. What You Need to Provide

3.1 Property boundary (CAR/SIGEF polygon)

In Brazil, every rural property should be registered in the CAR (Cadastro Ambiental Rural) with a boundary polygon. This polygon defines the legal perimeter of the property and is available through SICAR.

Acceptable formats for boundary data:

  • KML / KMZ — exported from Google Earth Pro or similar tools
  • Shapefile (.shp) — standard GIS format, often used by land surveyors
  • GeoJSON — lightweight format for web applications
  • Coordinate list — latitude/longitude pairs defining the polygon vertices (CSV or plain text)

3.2 Production area within the property

If the property includes areas not used for the regulated commodity (forest reserves, riparian zones, homesteads), provide the specific production area boundary, not just the full property boundary. For cattle operations, this typically means the pasture area.

3.3 Animal movement documents (cattle)

For cattle supply chains, provide GTA (Guia de Trânsito Animal) documents that trace animal movements between properties. The EUDR requires traceability to the plot of production — not just the last farm before slaughter.

3.4 Timeline of land use

Which parcels were used for production, and when? If the operation expanded into new areas after December 2020, this must be documented. Land use that began before the cutoff date on already-cleared land is treated differently from new clearing.

Supplier checklist

  • Property boundary polygon (CAR/SIGEF or GPS survey)
  • Production area boundary (if different from full property)
  • GTA documents for cattle movements
  • Timeline of land use per parcel
  • Property registration number (CAR code)
  • Contact details for any upstream suppliers in the chain

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid

These errors delay compliance assessments

  • Submitting only the pasture, not the full property. Satellite analysis needs the full property boundary to assess deforestation risk. A pasture polygon without context makes it impossible to check whether adjacent areas were recently cleared.
  • Using approximate coordinates. A town centre coordinate or a municipality centroid is not geolocation of a production plot. GPS-derived coordinates or CAR polygons are required.
  • Missing intermediate properties. For cattle, every property in the supply chain must be geolocated — not just the final fattening ranch. If calves were raised on a different property, that property needs geolocation too.
  • Outdated CAR boundaries. CAR boundaries are self-reported and may not reflect current land use. If the property has been subdivided or expanded since the last CAR update, provide current survey data.
  • Wrong coordinate format. Provide decimal degrees (e.g. -6.6647, -51.8404), not degrees-minutes-seconds, unless your buyer specifies otherwise. Mixing up latitude and longitude is surprisingly common.

5. Understanding Scale

Brazilian cattle properties vary enormously in size. In frontier regions like São Félix do Xingu (Pará), a typical ranch is 5,000–20,000 hectares, often comprising multiple parcels. Multi-parcel properties need a boundary polygon per parcel.

Satellite imagery at 10-metre resolution (Sentinel-2) can detect clearing events as small as 0.1 hectares. Landsat imagery at 30-metre resolution extends the analysis back to 2013 for historical baseline evidence.

The EUDR cutoff date is 31 December 2020. Any clearing after this date on production plots makes the associated commodity non-compliant — regardless of whether the clearing was legal under Brazilian law.

6. How Canopex Helps

Once you have the geolocation data, upload it to Canopex for automated satellite analysis:

  1. Upload your KML/KMZ file or paste coordinates directly
  2. Canopex analyses the area using Sentinel-2, Landsat, ESA WorldCover, and PRODES data
  3. Receive a deforestation-free determination with NDVI trends, change detection, and protected-area checks
  4. Export the evidence as PDF, GeoJSON, or CSV for your due-diligence statement

The entire process takes minutes, not weeks. No GIS expertise required.

Start your first assessment free →

7. Related Resources