All you need to know about the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in questions from companies and answers from Milena Kazanowska-Kędzierska, who examines the state of Polish businesses’ preparation for the new regulations on production based on the use of cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood… That is, activities causing deforestation.
Deforestation – Polish and European companies face challenges
The business community agrees that this is one of the most demanding pieces of legislation to which they will have to adapt, and they expect it to be a long, challenging and intensive process. We want to make it easier by answering the most common questions, clarifying difficult issues, dispelling doubts and providing examples of successful implementation and best practice, so that Polish companies are ready to compete with the best in Europe and the world.
The EUDR distinguishes between two categories of entities subject to it: ‘operators’ and ‘traders’. What is the difference?
The main difference is that an ‘operator’ is responsible for the initial placing on the EU market or export of a product, whereas a ‘trader’ deals with the further making available of products which are already placed on the market.
Looking at this in more detail, the EUDR imposes new obligations on:
Operators – i.e. any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity (i.e. for the purpose of processing, for distribution to commercial or non-commercial consumers, or for use in their own business or that of a trader):
- Places relevant products on the market, makes relevant commodities or products available on the Union market for the first time, which means “the first transaction involving a product, subsequent transactions no longer being covered by the concept in question, so that placing on the market should be understood to mean the first introduction of goods to the market by the manufacturer or importer”, or
- Exports relevant products, i.e. takes them out of the EU customs territory (in accordance with Regulation 952/2013)
Traders – meaning any person in the supply chain other than an operator, who, in the course of a commercial activity:
- makes relevant products available on the market, which means any supply of a relevant product for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge
It should be noted that where the relevant products are placed on the market by a non-EU natural or legal person, the first natural or legal person established in the EU who makes these relevant products available on the EU market is considered to be the OPERATOR.
Which products are covered by the EUDR? In other words, transactions in which products will fall under the EUDR?
Milena Kazanowska-Kędzierska:
These are the relevant commodities and products related to deforestation and forest degradation as listed in Annex 1 of the EUDR, which are:
- Placed on the EU market
- Exported from the Union
- Made available on the EU market
It is worth noting that this list may be expanded in the future to include other products if they are deemed to cause deforestation.
Relevant commodities include cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, soy, rubber and timber, while relevant products are those that:
- Contain relevant commodities
- Have been fed with relevant commodities
- Have been made using relevant commodities
A list of such commodities can be found here.
| RELEVANT COMMODITY | RELEVANT PRODUCT |
| Cattle | [0102 21 0102 29] Live cattle
[ex 0201] Meat of cattle, fresh or chilled [ex 0202] Meat of cattle, frozen [ex 0206 10] Edible offal of cattle, fresh or chilled [ex 0206 22] Edible cattle livers, frozen [ex 0206 29] Edible cattle offal (excluding tongues and livers), [ex 1602 50] Other prepared or preserved meat, meat offal, blood, of cattle [ex 4101] Raw hides and skins of cattle (fresh, or salted, dried, limed, pickled or otherwise preserved, but not tanned, parchment-dressed or further prepared), whether or not dehaired or split [ex 4104] Tanned or crust hides and skins of cattle, without hair on, whether or not split, but not further prepared [ex 4107] Leather of cattle, further prepared after tanning or crusting, including parchment-dressed leather, without hair on, whether or not split, other than leather of heading No 4114 |
| Cocoa | [1801] Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted
[1802] Cocoa shells, husks, skins and other cocoa waste [1803] Cocoa paste, whether or not defatted [1804] Cocoa butter, fat and oil [1805] Cocoa powder, not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter [1806] Chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa |
| Coffee | [0901] Coffee, whether or not roasted or decaffeinated; coffee husks and skins; coffee substitutes containing coffee in any proportion |
| Oil palm | [1207 10] Palm nuts and kernels
[1511] Palm oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified [1513 21] Crude palm kernel or babassu oil and fractions thereof, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified [1513 29] Palm kernel or babassu oil and their fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified (excluding crude oil) [2306 60] Oilcake and other solid residues of palm nuts or kernels, whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of palm nut or kernel fats or oils [ex 2905 45] Glycerol, with a purity of 95% or more (calculated on the weight of the dry product) [2915 70] Palmitic acid, stearic acid, their salts and esters [2915 90] Saturated acyclic monocarboxylic acids, their anhydrides, halides, peroxides and peroxyacids; their halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated or nitrosated derivatives (excluding formic acid, acetic acid, mono-, di- or trichloroacetic acids, propionic acid, butanoic acids, pentanoic acids, palmitic acid, stearic acid, their salts and esters, and acetic anhydride) [3823 11] Stearic acid, industrial [3823 12] Oleic acid, industrial [3823 19] Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining (excluding stearic acid, oleic acid and tall oil fatty acids) [3823 70] Industrial fatty alcohols |
| Rubber | [4001] Natural rubber, balata, gutta-percha, guayule, chicle and similar natural gums; in primary forms or in plates, sheets or strip
[ex 4005] Compounded rubber, unvulcanised, in primary forms or in plates, sheets or strip [ex 4006] Unvulcanised rubber in other forms (for example, rods, tubes and profile shapes) and articles (e.g. discs and rings) [ex 4007] Vulcanised rubber thread and cord [ex 4008] Plates, sheets, strips, rods and profile shapes, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber [ex 4010] Conveyer or transmission belts or belting, of vulcanised rubber [ex 4011] New pneumatic tyres, of rubber [ex 4012] Retreaded or used pneumatic tyres of rubber; solid or cushion tyres, tyre treads and tyre flaps, of rubber [ex 4013] Inner tubes, of rubber [ex 4015] Articles of apparel and clothing accessories (including gloves, mittens and mitts), for all purposes, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber [ex 4016] Other articles of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber, not elsewhere specified in chapter 40 [ex 4017] Hard rubber (e.g. ebonite) in all forms, including waste and scrap; articles of hard rubber |
| Soya | [1201] Soya beans, whether or not broken
[1208 10] Soya bean flour and meal [1507] Soya bean oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified [2304] Oilcake and other solid residues, whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of soya-bean oil |
| Wood | [4401] Fuel wood, in logs, in billets, in twigs, in faggots or in similar forms; wood in chips or particles; sawdust and wood waste and scrap, whether or not agglomerated in logs, briquettes, pellets or similar forms
[4402] Charcoal (including shell or nut charcoal), whether or not agglomerated [4403] Wood in the rough , whether or not stripped of bark or sapwood, or roughly squared [4404] Hoopwood; split poles; piles, pickets and stakes of wood, pointed but not sawn lengthwise; wooden sticks, roughly trimmed but not turned, bent or otherwise worked, suitable for the manufacture of walking sticks, umbrellas, tool handles or the like; chipwood and the like [4405] Wood wool; wood flour [4406] Railway or tramway sleepers (cross-ties) of wood [4407] Wood sawn or chipped lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded or end-jointed, of a thickness exceeding 6 mm [4408] Sheets for veneering (including those obtained by slicing laminated wood), for plywood or for other similar laminated wood and other wood, sawn lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded, spliced or end-jointed, of a thickness not exceeding 6 mm [4409] Wood (including strips and friezes for parquet flooring, not assembled) continuously shaped (tongued, grooved, rebated, chamfered, V-jointed, beaded, moulded, rounded or the like) along any of its edges, ends or faces, whether or not planed, sanded or end-jointed [4410] Particle board, oriented strand board (OSB) and similar board (for example, waferboard) of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not agglomerated with resins or other organic binding substances [4411] Fibreboard of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not bonded with resins or other organic substances [4412] Plywood, veneered panels and similar laminated wood [4413] Densified wood, in blocks, plates, strips or profile shapes [4414] Wooden frames for paintings, photographs, mirrors or similar objects [4415] Packing cases, boxes, crates, drums and similar packings, of wood; cable-drums of wood; pallets, box pallets and other load boards, of wood; pallet collars of wood (not including packing material used exclusively as packing material to support, protect or carry another product placed on the market) [4416] Casks, barrels, vats, tubs and other coopers’ products and parts thereof, of wood, including staves [4417] Tools, tool bodies, tool handles, broom or brush bodies and handles, of wood; boot or shoe lasts and trees, of wood [4418] Builders’ joinery and carpentry of wood, including cellular wood panels, assembled flooring panels, shingles and shakes [4419] Tableware and kitchenware, of wood [4420] Wood marquetry and inlaid wood; caskets and cases for jewellery or cutlery, and similar articles, of wood; statuettes and other ornaments, of wood; wooden articles of furniture not falling in Chapter 94 [4421] Other articles of wood; pulp and paper of Chapters 47 and 48 of the Combined Nomenclature, with the exception of bamboo-based and recovered (waste and scrap) products [ex 49] Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry, manuscripts, typescripts and plans, of paper [ex 9401] Seats (other than those of heading 9402), whether or not convertible into beds, and parts thereof, of wood [9403 30, 9403 40, 9403 50, 9403 60 and 9403 91] Wooden furniture, and parts thereof [9406 10] Prefabricated buildings of wood |
Example:
Company A produces chocolates in Poland, which it then sells (places on the market), inter alia, to Company B, which sells them on the EU market in the course of its commercial activity.
Company A – OPERATOR
Company B – TRADER
Chocolates – RELEVANT PRODUCT [1806] Chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa
When will the EUDR become applicable?
The Regulation entered into force on 29 June 2023, but will only be applicable from 30 December 2024.
It should be noted that on 2 October, the European Commission made a proposal to extend this deadline, but no binding decision has yet been taken.
The Commission proposes to give concerned parties additional time to prepare. If approved by the European Parliament and the Council, it would make the law applicable on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro- and small enterprises.
This means that companies should prepare for the implementation of the due diligence regime, taking into account the current deadlines.
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