A ban on placing on the EU market products from land deforested after 2020, backed by an obligation to geolocate the plots of origin.
The regulation prohibits placing on the Union market, or exporting from it, seven commodities and their derivatives, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood, where they come from land deforested or degraded after 31 December 2020. Its novelty is not the prohibition, which existed in voluntary forms, but the burden of proof: the operator must file a due diligence statement carrying the geographic coordinates of the plots of production, which turns a supply chain assertion into data verifiable by satellite imagery. The scheme thus makes enforceable what private certification asserted without individual evidence, and it shifts legal risk to the European importer, who answers for information supplied by distant producers. For insurance two exposures appear: the liability and defense costs of an importer that declared inaccurate coordinates in good faith, and the business interruption arising from a customs hold on a consignment that complies with the contract but not with the regulation.
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of 31 May 2023 on making deforestation-linked products available on the Union market requires a due diligence statement carrying the geolocation coordinates of the plots, its application having been deferred to the end of 2025 for large companies.
EUDR, RDUE, règlement déforestation, deforestation-free products