Must I submit a separate declaration for each shipment?

One declaration can cover multiple shipments

No, by definition you do not necessarily need to draw up a completely new due diligence declaration for each individual shipment. The regulation works with a declaration that is linked to a product or a product stream, and that declaration receives a reference number in the EU information system for the deforestation regulation. As long as the underlying data is correct — the same supplier, the same country of origin parcel, the same product stream and risk assessment — that reference number can be used for multiple shipments. What is required per shipment, however, is the link: when placing on the market or when clearing through customs, an indication is given of which reference number that specific consignment falls under.

If something changes in the underlying situation — a different supplier, a different parcel, a different risk assessment — then a new or amended declaration is required, even if it is the same type of product. The distinction between "per shipment" and "per batch" is therefore mainly administrative in nature: the declaration is linked to a product stream with fixed characteristics, and only when those characteristics change does the need arise for a new file and a new declaration. For an SME that regularly purchases from the same supplier in the same country of origin, this means less paperwork in practice than one separate declaration per physical delivery.

The basis: Article 4 and the reference number in the EU system

This approach follows from Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, which links the due diligence declaration to the placing on the market or making available of relevant products and provides the possibility to reuse a declaration once submitted with its reference number as long as the data on which it is based remains unchanged. The EU information system for the deforestation regulation registers those reference numbers and thus forms the place where the link between a declaration and a specific shipment is recorded. What information a declaration must precisely contain and under what conditions reuse of a reference number is permitted is stated in the regulation itself; the full, up-to-date text of it is on EUR-Lex.