EUDR & Traceability

Due Diligence Data for Coffee

This page is deliberately practical: what data exists, in what form, and how it is exchanged. It does not describe what your process must contain, because that is a question for the regulation and your own advisers.

Last reviewed August 20263 min read

Quick answer

Due diligence is the operator’s process. An origin supplier supports it by providing structured information about the consignment — supply chain documentation, lot identity, producer group records, legality documentation and, where collected, plot geolocation — in a format the operator’s system can ingest.

Scope of this section

This page describes what an origin supplier can provide to support an operator’s due diligence. It is not legal advice and it is not a statement of your obligations. The regulation, its guidance and its application timeline have been amended; confirm the current requirements from the official text and your own advisers.

The information set

Data an origin supplier can typically provide
Category	Contents	Source
Consignment identity	Contract reference, lot identifiers, bag count, container and seal numbers	Exporter records
Supply chain map	Which producer groups and stations contributed to the lot, and the transfers between them	Station and mill records
Producer group records	Cooperative, AMCOS or station registration and membership records	Producer organisation
Plot geolocation	Point or polygon data with farmer and plot identifiers	Field collection programme, where arranged
Legality documentation	Registration, licensing and export authorisation records applicable at the origin	Producer organisation and exporter
Processing and milling records	Delivery, fermentation, drying, milling batch and warehouse records	Station and dry mill
Shipment documentation	The standard export document set — see shipping documents	Exporter and carrier

Formats and exchange

The practical friction in due diligence data is rarely whether the information exists — it is whether it arrives in a form the receiving system can use. Agreeing the format at contract stage removes almost all of it.

Structured over documents. A CSV or JSON export of geolocation and supply chain data is far more usable than the same information in a PDF.
Stable identifiers. Lot, farmer and plot identifiers must be consistent between the data file and the shipping documents.
Coordinate format. Decimal degrees with a stated datum, not mixed formats.
Delivery timing. Whether data accompanies the offer, the contract or the shipping documents.
Update mechanism. How corrections are issued and tracked after the first transfer.

Retention

Records need to be kept for a defined period and to remain retrievable and linked. In practice that means the exporter, the dry mill and the producer organisation all need retention arrangements, because a record held only by one party breaks if that relationship ends.

What is retained: Consignment records, supply chain map, geolocation data, legality documentation, correspondence
Retention period: Defined in the contract, aligned to the operator’s own requirement
Retrievability: Indexed by lot and contract reference so a consignment can be reconstructed
Where held: Exporter records, with the producer organisation retaining its own originals
Data protection: Personal data handled under defined consent and retention terms

Being honest about limits

What a supplier cannot do

An origin supplier cannot make your due diligence decision, cannot certify a consignment as compliant, and cannot warrant a legal outcome in a jurisdiction it does not operate in. What it can do is provide accurate data, say clearly what is and is not available, and not overstate coverage. Treat any supplier claim that goes further than that with caution.

Where geolocation data does not exist for part of a supply base, we say so rather than extrapolating.
Where a coverage figure is quoted, we state the denominator it is calculated against.
Where a record is held by a third party, we identify the holder rather than presenting it as ours.
Where a requirement cannot be met for a given origin or crop, we say that at the enquiry stage.

Tell us what your process needs

Send us your data specification with your enquiry and we will tell you, origin by origin, what is available for the current crop and what would need to be built.

Request Current Crop Offer

Frequently asked questions

What due diligence information can an exporter provide?

Consignment identity, a supply chain map, producer group records, processing and milling records, legality documentation and — where a collection programme exists — plot geolocation. The exporter supplies data; the operator carries out the due diligence.

What format should geolocation data be in?

Structured and machine-readable — CSV or JSON — with decimal degree coordinates, a stated datum, and identifiers that match the shipping documents. Agree the format at contract stage rather than after shipment.

How long should records be retained?

For a period defined in the contract and aligned with the operator’s own requirement. What matters as much as the duration is that records remain indexed by lot and contract reference so a consignment can actually be reconstructed.

What if geolocation data is not available for part of a supply base?

Then we say so. Partial coverage stated accurately is more useful to an operator than a coverage claim that cannot be substantiated, and it lets you decide whether to proceed, to restrict the supply base, or to fund collection ahead of the next crop.

Tell us the coffee you need

Lots can be specified by origin, region, process, grade, screen, moisture, defect tolerance, crop year and packaging. Send what you know and we will confirm what each origin realistically supports.