Use this walkthrough for one traceable coffee lot. You will collect its farm data, reach a negligible-risk conclusion, prepare a TRACES-ready DDS, submit it in TRACES-NT and retain the evidence for five years. For background, read the EUDR coffee guide.
Confirm your role and product scope
- Importer buying from origin. You are the operator placing HS
0901coffee on the EU market. Complete due diligence and file a DDS before import. - EU roaster buying from an EU importer. You are downstream. Keep and pass on the upstream DDS reference numbers instead of filing again for the same coffee. A large downstream company must also confirm that upstream due diligence was carried out.
- Micro or small roaster importing directly. You are still the operator. The first application date is 30 June 2027 for micro and small enterprises, and 30 December 2026 for large and medium enterprises.
Annex I covers green, roasted and decaffeinated coffee, husks, skins and coffee-containing substitutes under HS 0901. Instant coffee, extracts and essences under HS 2101 are outside scope. Confirm the customs classification for mixed products.
Start on the Dashboard and set the operator identity
The Dashboard shows organisation-wide progress, not a separate case for each lot. Give the coffee lot a stable identifier for filenames and the later DDS internal reference. Then open Settings and, under Operator identity, complete Company name, Country (ISO2), EORI number and Actor route. Select Save identity. The company name and EORI must match the TRACES-NT operator. These fields are in Settings, not sign-up.
Under How you file, choose File it yourself and connect your TRACES credentials before filing. For the lot, gather the contract, invoice, bill of lading, net mass, country of production, harvest period, exporter, cooperative allocation and farm list.
Collect the farms allocated to the lot
Article 9 requires information about the land where the coffee was produced. Ask the cooperative or exporter for every contributing farm, stable farmer and plot identifiers, geolocation, production period and the allocation record. A washing station, mill, warehouse, village centroid, office or port is not a production plot.
Send the plot collection workflow and geolocation requirements before shipment. Reconcile every returned identifier with the lot allocation. If pooled coffee cannot be traced to its farms, ask the supplier to reconstruct the allocation.
Upload the plot file and fix flagged rows
In Plots, select Add plots. Under Upload plots, set From supplier, Commodity and Production period, then upload GeoJSON, WKT or KML. Compare the parsed count with the farm schedule and check country, coordinate order, duplicates, geometry and area.
Select Save 4 plots in this example, then use Edit in the register to correct flagged records before screening. Do not delete invalid farms merely to make the status green. Confirm wrong locations, missing farms or areas with the supplier.
Validate point and polygon records
A production plot of 4 hectares or less can use one latitude and longitude point. A plot above 4 hectares needs a polygon around its perimeter. Do not split a larger estate into invented points. Check that the saved country, area and identifier match the source record.
Use the map as a reasonableness check, not proof of conformity. Investigate coordinates outside the stated origin or growing region. Select only farms tied to this lot, and retain the explanation for any corrected outlier.
Screen the exact lot against the cutoff
Open Checks, select the validated plots allocated to the lot and choose Run screening. The screening provides forest and land-cover evidence relevant to the 31 December 2020 cutoff. It is not an approval or compliance certificate.
Run the check before shipment when possible. The screen labels results Low risk, Needs review or High risk. Shade coffee, boundary errors and local land-cover patterns can require further evidence.
Assess the evidence and mitigate risk
For Needs review or High risk, select Explain. Confirm the geometry and obtain plot-specific evidence such as dated imagery, farm records, land documents, inspection notes or a corrected boundary.
Complete the Article 10 risk assessment with traceability, screening, supplier reliability, contradictory information and legality. In Assess, record Legality evidence by country. If risk is not negligible, use Flagged plots and Add measure to document Article 11 mitigation, then reassess. A Low risk screening alone is not a due diligence conclusion.
Build the DDS from screened plots
Open Statements and use Select screened plots. Under Statement details, set Activity type to IMPORT, add the Internal reference (optional, ≤35 chars), confirm HS 0901 and enter Net weight (kg).
The DDS derives producer countries and geolocations from the selected plot records, including their production periods. It has no separate harvest-window field. Use the coffee’s production or harvest period, not the sailing or customs-arrival date, and use product net mass rather than bag, pallet or container weight. Check each field with the DDS template guide.
Preview and submit in TRACES-NT
Under Preview & submit, reconcile the operator, activity, internal reference, HS heading, net weight, producers and plot count. When the TRACES-ready payload is correct, select Submit DDS to TRACES. You submit the DDS in TRACES-NT.
After submission, use Filed statements and Check status to retrieve the reference and verification numbers. A mock response, draft or preview is not an official filing. Use the TRACES-NT filing guide if you need filing setup details.
Keep the evidence for five years
Keep the Article 9 information, source and corrected plot files, lot allocation, supplier identities, contracts, transport records, legality evidence, screening output, Article 10 assessment, Article 11 mitigation, submitted DDS and returned identifiers. In Document pack, select Generate full pack to create dated document versions. The pack does not replace the source evidence.
Use the same lot and plot identifiers throughout the archive and keep earlier dated evidence when conclusions change. Pass the DDS reference to the customs representative and downstream buyer that need it, while retaining the underlying file under your control.
Handle common coffee edge cases
- Blends. Include every origin plot and connect each green lot to the finished blend.
- Decaffeination in another country. The product remains HS
0901, and the production plots remain the farms where the coffee grew. - Cooperative aggregation. Obtain the member allocation before shipment instead of treating every cooperative farm as part of every lot.
- EU purchase followed by export. Export is covered too. Establish the downstream duty and retain the upstream DDS references.
Start the next lot early
Request the next lot’s farm allocation before booking shipment. For origin-specific evidence, use the guides for Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam and Ethiopia.