A due diligence statement is the electronic declaration an operator files in the EU information system before a product covered by the deforestation regulation is placed on the Union market or exported. Filing it returns a reference number. From that moment the number, not the document, is what matters commercially. It has to travel down the supply chain, be recorded against the goods, and be produced on request for five years. The duty applies from 30 December 2026.
What a due diligence statement is
It is a declaration, not a report. Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 sets the rule. An operator that has exercised due diligence, and has found that its goods comply, files the statement in the EU information system. It files before the goods go on the market or leave the Union. The statement is electronic and transmittable, and it carries a fixed set of fields. It ends with a line saying that no risk, or only a negligible risk, was found.
The weight sits in Article 4(3). By filing, the operator takes on responsibility for the compliance of the product with Article 3. Article 3 is the ban at the centre of the regulation. Nothing covered may be placed or made available on the market, or exported, unless three things hold. It has to be deforestation-free. It has to have been produced in line with the law of the country of production. And it has to be covered by a statement or by a simplified declaration.
That is why the document is often read as paperwork. It is closer to a warranty. The operator is not describing what it did. It is taking the risk of the consignment onto its own balance sheet, with a trail an authority can pull at any time.
Who files one, and who never does
Only operators file. An operator is a person who places relevant products on the market, or exports them, in the course of a commercial activity. Downstream operators are carved out of that definition. A downstream operator places or exports goods made using products that are already covered. A trader is anyone else in the chain who makes relevant products available. Neither of them files a statement.
What they do instead is collect and keep. Article 5 lists three items. The identity of the party that supplied them. The reference numbers, where that supplier was an operator. And the identity of the party they supplied in turn. Traders and downstream operators above the small and medium-sized threshold must also register in the information system first.
Two rules move the burden. Where the seller sits outside the Union, the first person established in the Union who makes the goods available counts as the operator. The filing duty comes with that status. And an operator that is a natural person or a microenterprise may name the next party down the chain as its authorised representative. That party then files on its behalf. Responsibility for compliance stays where it was.
What has to be in it
Annex II sets the content, and one field does most of the work. The statement carries the operator name and address, plus the EORI number for goods entering or leaving the market. It carries the commodity code, a free-text description with the trade name, and the quantity. For wood it carries the full scientific name as well. It closes with the set declaration sentence and a signature block.
Between those sits the geolocation. The statement has to give the country of production. It also has to give the geolocation of every plot of land where the commodities were produced, as latitude and longitude, to at least six decimal digits. For plots above four hectares, points are not enough. The perimeter has to be drawn as a polygon. For cattle, the geolocation means every establishment where the animals were kept.
The evidence behind the statement stays with the operator. Article 9 says it has to be collected, organised and kept for five years. That clock runs from the placing on the market or from the export. Article 12 adds a second duty. The diligence system itself is reviewed once a year, and the record of those updates is kept for five years too.
The reference number and where it has to live
Once the statement is filed, the system returns a reference number for it. Article 4(7) then makes the operator pass that number down the chain, to the downstream operators and traders who take the goods. A simplified declaration produces a declaration identifier instead, and it travels the same way.
This is the part that lands in the warehouse rather than in the compliance file. Article 3 bars any onward supply of a product that is not covered. Once the goods have left the operator, the only workable proof of cover is a number tied to a consignment. A reference number sent by e-mail, and never written against the stock, cannot be produced when one pallet is questioned.
The storage layout matters for the same reason. An operator may drop the risk assessment and the mitigation steps for goods from a low-risk country, and Slovakia is on that list. But the relief is conditional. The operator has to weigh the complexity of the chain, the risk of circumvention, and the risk of mixing with goods of unknown origin or of higher-risk origin. Mixing happens in a bulk location, on a consolidated pallet and at a re-pack station. A racking decision therefore sits inside a legal test. The warehouse side of that test, including who lets an inspector in and who pays for a frozen bay, is worked through in our post on what the deforestation rules do inside a rented hall.
When it is checked, and what a failed check costs
Checks on operators look at the diligence system itself. They also look at the records that show a given product complies, and at the statements behind it. Checks on downstream operators and traders look at the records those parties have to keep. The volume is set by country risk. Each Member State has to reach at least one per cent of the parties dealing in low-risk goods each year, three per cent for standard risk, and nine per cent of parties and of quantity for high risk. Checks come without warning, unless notice is needed to make them work.
Where something is wrong, the authority may act at once. It may seize the goods or suspend their supply. It may order corrective action: fixing a formal defect, withdrawal, recall, a donation, or disposal as waste. It may also reclaim its costs, and the list of recoverable costs names storage. Fines for a company have to reach at least four per cent of total annual Union-wide turnover.
In Slovakia the competent authority is the Slovak forestry and timber inspection, named by Act 81/2025 Z. z. Its first article takes effect on the same day as the regulation. So treat the statement as an operational record, not a legal formality. It is filed once. It returns a number. That number has to survive every hand-off, every system migration and every contract renewal, for five years after the goods moved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a due diligence statement if I only store goods for a customer?
No. Storing goods under a warehousing contract is not making them available on the market. Making available means supplying the product for distribution, consumption or use. A warehouse keeper supplies a service. It becomes an operator or a trader only if it takes title, sells on its own account, or accepts a mandate to act as an authorised representative.
Does a trader have to file one?
No. Traders and downstream operators keep the reference numbers issued to the operators who supplied them, along with supplier and customer details, and hand them over on request. Traders and downstream operators above the small and medium-sized threshold also have to register in the information system before they supply anything covered.
How long must the record be kept?
Five years. Operators keep the statements for five years from filing. They keep the evidence behind them for five years from the placing on the market or from the export. Traders and downstream operators keep the supplier, customer and reference-number record for at least five years from the day they placed, supplied or exported the goods.
What is the simplified declaration?
A lighter route for micro or small primary operators. Those are very small producers in a low-risk country who place on the market what they grew, harvested or raised themselves. They file once, rather than per consignment. They receive a declaration identifier instead of a reference number, and they may give a postal address in place of the geolocation.
When does the duty start?
On 30 December 2026 for the operative provisions, after two postponements. Natural persons and micro or small undertakings set up as such by 31 December 2024 have until 30 June 2027. That later date does not cover the products that already fell under the earlier timber regulation.
Are you signing a lease or a storage contract for a site that will hold goods covered by Annex I? Send us both documents and we will mark the clauses that decide who lets an inspector in, who carries the rent on a bay that has been frozen, and who keeps the reference numbers after the contract ends.