Geolocation Data Standards for Coffee Exporters: Navigating EUDR Due Diligence Statements
By Sandra Nansbuga
Geolocation Data Standards for Coffee Exporters: Navigating EUDR Due Diligence Statements
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires coffee placed on or exported from the EU market to be traceable to the exact plot of land where it was grown, and the EU's Information System currently accepts only one digital format for that geolocation data: GeoJSON, using the WGS84 (EPSG:4326) coordinate system. The rule applies from 30 December 2026, and coffee is explicitly listed among the covered commodities.
What the regulation requires
Under the European Commission's Green Forum page on EUDR implementation, the Regulation requires that products placed on, sold within, or exported from the EU are free from deforestation, and companies placing these products on the EU market for the first time must show the products are deforestation-free and produced in line with relevant laws in the country of production. Coffee is named directly among the commodities covered. The same page confirms the Regulation applies from 30 December 2026, and that non-EU producers, while not directly obligated under the EUDR, may still be asked by their EU buyers to supply geolocation data to help those buyers meet their own compliance requirements.
The technical specification for that data is set out in the EUDR GeoJSON File Description published for users of the EU Information System. GeoJSON is an IETF-standardized geospatial data format (RFC 7946) built on JSON, and the Information System's first production version supports only this format with the WGS84 datum, coordinates expressed in decimal degrees, ordered longitude before latitude. Accepted geometry types are Point, MultiPoint, Polygon, and MultiPolygon; a Polygon must consist of at least four coordinate pairs with the first and last pair identical to close the shape. LineString and MultiLineString geometries are explicitly not accepted. Polygons with internal holes ("doughnut" shapes) and shapes with crossing lines are also rejected by the system; the documentation suggests representing a hole as two separate half-shaped polygons instead. Optional but recommended properties include ProductionPlace, ProducerName, ProducerCountry (as an ISO2 code), and Area in hectares; if Area is omitted for a point geometry, the system defaults it to four hectares. Individual Due Diligence Statement submissions are capped at 25 MB, including all uploaded GeoJSON files.
What this means for buyers
Point-versus-polygon choice is not optional once a plot crosses the size threshold. Multiple compliance guides referencing the Regulation describe a four-hectare threshold: plots at or below that size can be represented with a single coordinate point, while larger plots must be submitted as a polygon outlining the perimeter. For Fluna's smallholder Robusta suppliers, many farms fall in the sub-four-hectare range where a single point may suffice, but buyers should not assume this without confirming actual plot size for each supplying farm, since a rejected polygon (open shape, crossing lines, or a hole) will stop a Due Diligence Statement rather than simply flag a warning.
File validity is a customs-clearance issue, not just a data-quality one. Because the Information System rejects specific structural errors (unclosed polygons, invalid geometry types, duplicate coordinates from over-precise rounding, non-numeric Area values), a technically invalid GeoJSON file can block a shipment even when the underlying farm data is accurate and deforestation-free. Buyers should ask exporters what validation step, if any, is applied to geolocation files before they are attached to a shipment's documentation.
Coordinate precision claims should be verified against the file, not just the source description. Some geolocation datasets convert cleanly from other coordinate systems and some do not; the Information System documentation notes that if source coordinates are in a different system, they must be converted to WGS84 (EPSG:4326) before submission. Buyers with EU-bound contracts may want to ask exporters directly which coordinate system their farm-level GPS data was originally captured in.
FAQ
What file format does the EUDR Information System require for geolocation data?
The system's first production version supports only the GeoJSON format using the WGS84 (EPSG:4326) coordinate system, per the EU's published GeoJSON File Description.
When does the EUDR apply to coffee exports?
The Regulation applies from 30 December 2026, according to the European Commission's Green Forum page on EUDR implementation, and coffee is one of the commodities explicitly covered.
Can a farm plot be represented by a single GPS point instead of a full polygon?
The EU's technical documentation notes that if the "Area" property for a point geometry is not provided, the system defaults it to four hectares, consistent with guidance elsewhere that smaller plots can be represented by a point while larger plots require a polygon.
Sources
Deforestation Regulation implementation, European Commission Green Forum
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EUR-Lex
EUDR GeoJSON File Description, Version 1.5, EU Information System technical documentation
Sources: European Commission's Green Forum page on EUDR implementation | EUDR GeoJSON File Description published for users of the EU Information System | Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EUR-Lex