EUDR guide for exporters
EUDR guide for cattle and beef exporters
Under the EU Deforestation Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115), the company that brings your cattle and beef into the EU has to collect your plot data before the goods reach customs. This guide sums up what it will ask you for. Print it or save it as a PDF and share it with your team.
Which products are covered
Live cattle, fresh, chilled and frozen beef, edible offal (0206) and preparations such as 1602 50. Frozen tongues from 30 December 2027. Hides and skins left the scope on 18 September 2026.
What is specific to cattle and beef
- No 4 hectare rule: one point for every establishment where the animal was kept, from birth to slaughter. The farm of origin or the slaughterhouse alone is not enough.
- Buyers need the individual ID numbers of the animals the cuts come from, with dates of birth and slaughter, and how the boxes link back to the carcasses.
- A pasture opened in forest after 2020 disqualifies every animal that passed through it.
What a cattle and beef buyer will ask you for
Every establishment of each animal
The farm of birth, every rearing and fattening farm and any feedlot, each with its name and country.
One point per establishment
Coordinates with six decimals for each establishment, in GeoJSON. Size does not matter: no polygons are needed.
Individual animal IDs
The ear tag or official ID of every animal slaughtered for the shipment, from the national traceability system where there is one.
Movement records
The official records of each move between establishments, with dates.
Slaughter and cutting records
Which carcasses went into which production lot at the cutting plant, and which boxes in the container came from that lot.
Dates of birth and slaughter
For each animal, the date it was born and the date it was slaughtered.
Registration and permits
Registration of each establishment and the environmental permits for its pastures. Your buyer decides which documents it needs.
Example: a container of frozen beef cuts
A meat plant slaughters cattle bought from several fattening farms and exports frozen boneless cuts to a processor in the EU. Many of the animals were born and reared on other farms before they reached the fattening farm.
From the national animal traceability records, the plant lists the ID of every animal in the production lot and every establishment each one passed through. The GeoJSON holds one point per establishment, birth farms included, whatever their size.
The cutting records link the boxes in the container to that lot of carcasses. The buyer receives the establishment points, the animal IDs, the dates of birth and slaughter and the registration documents. Animals that passed through a pasture opened in forest after 2020 cannot go in the container.
Mistakes that get cattle and beef data sent back
- Only the fattening farm or the slaughterhouse listed, with the farms of birth and rearing left out.
- Cuts from several production lots packed in one container with no record of which boxes came from which lot.
- Animal IDs that do not match the national traceability records.
- Establishment coordinates taken from the owner’s address in town instead of the farm itself.
Key dates
- 31 December 2020: cut-off date. Land deforested after this date cannot supply the EU market. It does not move with the postponements.
- 30 December 2026: large and medium-sized EU companies must comply, and so must every company for timber products that were under the old EU Timber Regulation.
- 30 June 2027: micro and small EU companies.
Questions from cattle and beef exporters
We also sell hides. Do buyers still need EUDR data for them?
No. Bovine hides and skins left the scope on 18 September 2026. Live cattle, beef, edible offal and preparations such as 1602 50 remain in it.
An animal spent a few weeks on a rented pasture. Does that count?
Every establishment where the animal was kept counts, however short the stay. If the rented pasture is a separate establishment, it needs its own point.
Do offal and tongues need data?
Edible offal (0206) is covered from the start. Frozen tongues only come into scope on 30 December 2027.
Our country has a national animal ID system. Is that enough?
It is the best starting point, because it records each animal’s moves between establishments. The buyer still needs the location of each establishment and the link between the cuts and the animals, which the ID system alone may not give.
The basics, for every product
Whatever the product, the EU buyer needs the same base data: where each plot is (a point up to 4 ha, a polygon above, six decimals), who produced there and in which country, when it was harvested, and information showing that the land was not deforested after 31 December 2020 and that production followed the law of your country.
How to prepare this data and share it with all your buyers