Ship to the EU.
Deforestation-free.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 bars seven commodities — and products made from them — from the EU market unless they are deforestation-free, produced legally in the country of origin, and covered by a due-diligence statement. "Deforestation-free" means the land was not cleared of forest after 31 December 2020, which has to be proven with geolocation data for every plot the goods came from.

The rules apply to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026. Micro and small enterprises have until 30 June 2027. Because compliance depends on plot-level data collected during the harvest that precedes your first shipment, most exporters need their farm mapping finished a full season ahead of those dates rather than in the final quarter.

Seven commodities are in scope: cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood — plus a long list of derived products such as leather, chocolate, paper, furniture, tyres and palm-oil derivatives. DICE focuses on the four that dominate Indian exports to the EU: coffee, natural rubber, wood and paper, and cocoa.

Yes. The EU country benchmarking places India in the low-risk category, which lightens the due-diligence burden — operators may apply a simplified assessment — but it does not remove the obligation. You still have to collect geolocation for every plot, establish legal production, and see that a due-diligence statement is filed before the goods enter the EU.

A DDS is the declaration lodged in the EU TRACES system confirming that a consignment meets the EUDR and that due diligence was carried out. It carries a reference number that travels with the shipment through customs. The EU operator placing the goods on the market is legally responsible, but an authorised representative can file on their behalf — which is how DICE handles it for Indian exporters and their EU buyers.

Every plot of land where the commodity was produced needs coordinates. Plots larger than four hectares require a full boundary polygon; plots of four hectares or less can be declared as a single latitude/longitude point. For smallholder-heavy supply chains this can mean thousands of individual plots per exporter, which is why DICE onboards growers through FPOs and producer boards rather than one at a time.

Member states set their own penalties, but the regulation sets a floor: fines of at least 4% of the operator’s total annual EU-wide turnover, alongside confiscation of the goods and of the revenue from them, exclusion from public procurement and public funding for up to twelve months, and in serious cases a temporary ban on placing the commodity on the EU market. Consignments can also simply be held at the border.

For a mid-sized exporter with an established grower base, mapping and verification typically runs six to ten weeks: grower KYC and geotagging first, then polygon validation and deforestation risk screening, then legality documents into the vault. After that, filing a DDS per shipment — or a single annual statement, which the rules now permit — is a routine step rather than a project.