# EUDR for Smallholder Farmers: What You'll Be Asked For

Last updated: 2026-10-21

> What the EUDR means for coffee and cocoa farmers: why buyers ask where your plots are, what to keep ready, and what the 2020 forest cutoff means for a farm.

Date: October 21, 2026

> Part of the [EUDR Guide](https://restorationscope.com/blog/category/eudr), step 1 of 5: understand the rule.

If you sell through a cooperative or exporter and do not place your crop on the EU market yourself, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) puts no direct legal duty on you. But the EU company that brings your crop in has to show where each plot is and that it was not forest turned into farmland after 31 December 2020, so your cooperative or exporter will ask you for it. In practice: let them map your plots, keep your land papers, and tell them when a plot changes. This applies from 30 December 2026.

This guide is for farmers and for the field officers who explain the EUDR to them. Cooperatives can share it with their members; the version for cooperatives themselves is [EUDR for cooperatives](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-for-cooperatives).

**Checked 21 October 2026:** against [Regulation (EU) 2023/1115](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02023R1115-20260918) as amended by [Regulation (EU) 2025/2650](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/2650/oj), and the Commission's [FAQ](https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/faq-eudr-implementation_en). A plain-language summary, not legal advice.

## Why is my buyer asking where my plots are?

Because their EU customer needs it before lawfully placing your coffee or cocoa on the EU market once the rules apply. The EU company that brings it in files a statement saying it comes from land that wasn't deforested after 31 December 2020 and was farmed legally. That statement must include the location of every plot the crop came from.

So the question comes down the chain: from the EU importer to the exporter, from the exporter to the cooperative, and from the cooperative to you.

## What will I be asked for?

- **Where each plot is.** A point on a phone for a plot of 4 hectares or less, or a walk around the edge for a bigger plot. Each separate plot is mapped on its own.
- **What grows there.** Coffee, cocoa or another crop, and roughly how much you harvest from each plot.
- **When you harvested.** The harvest season is enough if exact dates don't exist.
- **Papers for the land.** A title, a lease, a possession certificate, or whatever shows you have the right to farm it.

Your cooperative may hand you a field template, a short form with these questions, to fill in or to answer with a field officer.

## What should I do, and in what order?

1. **Know your plots.** How many separate plots you farm, roughly how big each one is, and what grows on each.
2. **Let your cooperative or buyer map them.** Walk the field officer to each plot. Check the plot on their screen looks right: the right place, the right shape.
3. **Keep your papers together.** Copies of land documents and any certification, kept safe and easy to show.
4. **Tell them when something changes.** A new plot, a plot sold or inherited, a boundary moved. The map has to match the land each season.
5. **Don't clear forest for new planting.** Coffee or cocoa from land that was forest on 31 December 2020 and became farmland after it can't be sold to the EU.

## What does the 2020 cutoff mean for my farm?

The regulation uses FAO's definition of forest: more than half a hectare with trees taller than 5 metres covering more than 10% of the ground, or trees capable of reaching those thresholds, and not mainly used for farming. That means:

| Your plot | What does this mean for the deforestation review? |
| --- | --- |
| Farmed before 2021, and still farmed | Existing agricultural use may satisfy this part of the review. The EU company must also check legality and traceability, and file the required statement. |
| Coffee or cocoa under shade trees, farming the main use | It counts as farmland. Existing agricultural use may satisfy this part of the review. The EU company must also check legality and traceability, and file the required statement. |
| Forest on 31 December 2020, turned into farmland after | Its crop can't be placed on the EU market |
| Coffee picked inside natural forest, as a minor crop | The land is still forest; ask your cooperative |

The decision on each plot belongs to the EU company that files the statement, using satellite pictures from before and after 2020. A plot that is clearly mapped, with its papers, is the easiest for the buyer to review.

## What about the simplified declaration?

Small farmers established in a country the EU rates low risk, who sell what they grow there directly into the EU market, file a one-time simplified declaration and can give the postal address of their plots instead of a map point (Article 4a). Farmers outside the EU who sell to a cooperative or an exporter there don't need it, and it isn't open to farmers in standard-risk countries such as Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire or Ethiopia.

## Where to learn more

What a plot location has to look like is in [what geolocation the EUDR requires](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-geolocation). The regulation as a whole is in [what is the EUDR](https://restorationscope.com/blog/what-is-eudr).

**EUDR Guide: Learn everything about the EUDR.** From what the regulation asks to mapping plots, tracing lots and reviewing the evidence, in the order teams need it.

1. **Understand the rule.** Who has to comply, what a due diligence statement holds and when it applies.
   - Guide: [What is the EUDR?](https://restorationscope.com/blog/what-is-eudr)
   - Guide: [EUDR for EU importers](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-for-importers)
   - Guide: EUDR for smallholder farmers (you're reading this)
   - Free tool: [EUDR scope checker](https://restorationscope.com/tools/eudr-scope-checker)
   - Free tool: [EUDR HS code and country lookup](https://restorationscope.com/tools/eudr-hs-code-lookup)
2. **Map every plot.** A point or a boundary for each plot, collected in the field and kept current.
   - Guide: [EUDR for cooperatives](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-for-cooperatives)
   - Guide: [What geolocation the EUDR requires](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-geolocation)
   - Guide: [Tools for EUDR geolocation data](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-geolocation-tools)
   - Free tool: [Field plot template](https://restorationscope.com/tools/eudr-field-template)
   - Free tool: [Plot file checker](https://restorationscope.com/tools/eudr-plot-file-checker)
   - Product: [Mapping plots in Restoration Scope](https://restorationscope.com/eudr#geolocation)
3. **Trace each lot to its plots.** Harvest recorded by plot, grouped into lots, with the geolocation file each lot needs.
   - Guide: [EUDR for exporters](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-for-exporters)
   - Product: [Harvest and lots](https://restorationscope.com/eudr#traceability)
   - Product: [The file for your EU buyer](https://restorationscope.com/eudr#export)
   - Free tool: [Due diligence statement prep sheet](https://restorationscope.com/tools/eudr-due-diligence-statement)
4. **Review the evidence.** Imagery from before the 2020 cutoff, forest maps and the plots whose data needs a fix. Your team makes the call.
   - Guide: [EUDR compliance checklist](https://restorationscope.com/blog/eudr-compliance-checklist)
   - Product: [Deforestation evidence](https://restorationscope.com/eudr#evidence)
   - Product: [Data quality](https://restorationscope.com/eudr#data-quality)
5. **See it working.** An example coffee cooperative with its plots, lots and imagery.
   - Product: [Restoration Scope for EUDR](https://restorationscope.com/eudr)
   - Demo: [Book a call to see the demo](https://cal.com/bernat/restoration-scope-initial-call)

[Open the EUDR Guide](https://restorationscope.com/blog/category/eudr)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does the EUDR apply to smallholder farmers?

Not directly, if you sell through a cooperative or exporter and do not place your crop on the EU market yourself. The regulation's duties fall on the company that first places the coffee or cocoa on the EU market. But that company needs to know where each plot is, so cooperatives and exporters ask farmers for it.

### What will a farmer be asked for because of the EUDR?

Where each plot is, what grows there, when it was harvested, and papers that show the right to farm the land, such as a title, lease or possession certificate.

### Can I still sell coffee from a plot I cleared after 2020?

Not to the EU, if the plot was forest on 31 December 2020 and was turned into farmland after that date. On plots that were already farmland, or agroforestry where crops were the main use, existing agricultural use may satisfy the deforestation part of the review. The EU company must also check legality and traceability, and file the required statement.

### Is shade-grown or agroforestry coffee counted as forest?

No, when farming is the main use of the land. The regulation follows FAO's forest definition, which excludes land mainly in agricultural use, so coffee or cocoa under shade trees counts as farmland.

### Do I have to pay for mapping my plots?

The regulation does not say who pays. In most supply chains the cooperative or exporter maps members' plots with a phone app, because it is the one that has to hand the data to its EU buyer.