TRACES NT System Integration: How Ugandan Smallholder Mapping Prepares Importers for EUDR Enforcement
By Sandra Nansbuga
TRACES NT System Integration: How Ugandan Smallholder Mapping Prepares Importers for EUDR Enforcement
TRACES NT is the European Commission's official Information System for submitting EUDR Due Diligence Statements, and Uganda's national coffee farmer registry, built since October 2024, is designed to supply the plot-level data that statement requires. What does not yet exist is a confirmed, live, automated system-to-system link between Uganda's registry and TRACES NT itself; instead, Uganda has approved a small set of official traceability providers whose role is to convert registry and farm-level data into EUDR-compliant submissions.
What TRACES NT actually is, and how Uganda's registry connects to it
TRACES NT, short for Trade Control and Expert System New Technology, is confirmed by the European Commission's own Green Business page as the Information System functioning under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, where operators and traders submit Due Diligence Statements to demonstrate EUDR compliance. The regulation applies from 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators, and 30 June 2027 for micro and small undertakings.
Uganda's own registry-building effort predates and was explicitly designed around this requirement. As covered earlier in this series, Uganda's nationwide coffee farmer and value-chain-actor registration launched on 1 October 2024, capturing GPS coordinates, farm identity, and coffee type through a Geospatial Monitoring and Evaluation System managed by UCDA in partnership with Uganda's National Information Technology Authority. In an August 2024 Q&A published by Business Focus, UCDA stated it was pursuing "system enhancements and integration simultaneously to have the traceability module incorporated in the national Geo Spatial System," describing this as work in progress rather than a completed technical link to any specific EU system.
More recently, Uganda has formalized a provider-based pathway for turning that registry data into EUDR submissions. According to Dimitra Technology's own announcement, the Ugandan government approved Dimitra as one of five official national traceability providers supporting coffee traceability and EUDR-aligned due diligence, as of January 2026.
What this means for buyers
A national registry is an input to compliance, not a finished due diligence statement. Uganda's Geospatial M&E System captures the farm-level data that Article 9 of the EUDR requires, but a European buyer still needs that data converted into a properly formatted submission in TRACES NT, via an exporter, a certification body, or one of Uganda's approved traceability providers. Buyers should ask exporters specifically which pathway is being used to move registry data into an actual DDS, rather than assuming registration alone equals compliance.
Approved traceability providers are a concrete verification point for buyers to check. Since Uganda has named a specific, limited set of official national traceability providers, buyers can reasonably ask an exporter whether their EUDR data pipeline runs through one of these approved providers, giving a checkable fact rather than a general assurance.
"System integration" claims deserve a direct question about what's actually linked. Given that UCDA's own 2024 statement described integration as ongoing work rather than a completed connection, buyers should ask exporters and providers precisely what is integrated today, whether that is data collection and formatting readiness, or an actual live submission pathway into TRACES NT, since these are materially different levels of readiness.
Coverage gaps in the underlying registry still limit what any integration can guarantee. As covered earlier in this series, Uganda's reported farmer registration figures (in the 1.6 to 1.65 million range) fall short of the roughly 1.8 million estimated smallholder coffee farmers in the country, meaning even a fully functioning data pipeline can only cover the farmers actually captured in the registry.
FAQ
Is TRACES NT the official EU system for EUDR compliance submissions?
Yes. The European Commission's own Green Business page confirms TRACES NT is the Information System through which operators and traders submit Due Diligence Statements under the EUDR, functioning pursuant to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084.
Is Uganda's national coffee farmer registry directly linked to TRACES NT?
Not confirmed as a completed, live system-to-system link as of the sources available, UCDA has described integration work as ongoing, and Uganda has instead approved a set of official traceability providers to convert registry data into EUDR submissions.
When does the EUDR actually take effect?
The regulation applies from 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators, and 30 June 2027 for micro and small undertakings.
Sources
European Commission, Green Business: Information System