What determines the costs of an EUDR file per product stream?
There is no fixed amount to quote for an EUDR file, and anyone who says there is, is guessing. What can be said is: the costs are determined by four factors that differ per product stream. The number of suppliers and countries of origin, the risk classification of those countries, the condition of your geolocation data, and the choice of whether you do it yourself or outsource it.
A small coffee roaster with two permanent suppliers in the same country has a different cost picture than a timber trader who purchases via intermediaries from five countries with varying plots. The file itself — suppliers, countries of origin, plots with geolocation data and the documents you must retain — is mandatory for both, but the time and money to build it vary considerably.
Where the amount comes from
An EUDR file is not a single task but a series of steps, each with its own time and costs: mapping suppliers and their origin, requesting and verifying geolocation data, collecting documents and keeping them accessible for five years, and drawing up the due diligence statement or the simplified statement from that. Anyone who counts these steps separately will also see where the amount comes from: not from a single line item, but from the sum total.
The number of suppliers and countries of origin
The more suppliers and the more countries of origin within a single product stream, the more times you must ask the same questions and perform the same checks. A company with one supplier per raw material needs less coordination than a trader who purchases via multiple links. see in a few questions which role and obligation apply to you gives a first indication of how large that task is for your situation.
The risk classification of the country
The regulation distinguishes countries by risk classification, and that classification partly determines how much additional scrutiny and documentation is required. For sourcing from a country with a higher risk classification, the emphasis is often on additional substantiation, which takes more time and thus incurs more costs than sourcing from a country with a lower classification.
The condition of your geolocation data
Geolocation data of plots is a mandatory part of the file. If a supplier already has that data available digitally, it is a matter of requesting and verifying it. If plots still need to be surveyed or a supplier first needs to be told what is required, that conversation and its lead time count towards the costs. This makes the conversation with your supplier about origin data often the determining factor, more than the EUDR rules themselves.
Do it yourself or outsource
You can build the file yourself, with internal hours, spreadsheets and a lawyer for the tricky cases. You can also have it structured and validated by a party set up for that purpose. Both routes cost something: the first mainly in time, the second mainly in a fixed or variable amount. What that second route costs in concrete terms depends on the number of product streams and the size of your supplier base; view the current rates per product stream gives you a concrete picture of that.
What costs time, and what costs money
It is useful to keep these two separate. Time costs you regardless of who builds the file: someone must contact suppliers, verify data and have the statement submitted. Money comes in once you engage software, a consultant, a lawyer or a service provider to shorten that time or reduce the risk of errors. Both components increase as the number of product streams, suppliers and countries of origin increases, and decrease as your administration is already in order before you start.
Why this differs per product stream
The regulation does not look at your business as a whole, but at each product stream separately: coffee from country A is a different stream than cocoa from country B, even if both are traded by the same importer. This means that the costs of compliance are not incurred once, but are rebuilt for each product stream — although some of the infrastructure, such as a template for supplier data, can be reused. search the knowledge base by topic shows how the obligations differ per commodity and per role.
How you get a realistic picture
A realistic picture of costs only emerges once you know what role you have, how many suppliers and countries of origin are involved per product stream, and how complete your geographic data already are. Without that basis, any figure remains a shot in the dark. check where the information and indications come from shows how that assessment is made and what part of it remains free.
Do you first want to know where you stand before you start estimating costs? The free role check answers in a few questions what your role is, what your obligation is and the implementation date that applies to it, without you having to pay anything for it.