The Birmingham-based freight and customs firm is urging manufacturers to check whether their products will be affected by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

The company has also outlined the changes coming into force at the EU border from 30 December, and what exporters need to have in place to ensure their goods can continue to enter the EU.

EUDR covers seven commodities – cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood and the products made from them.

Furniture, pallets and packaging, paper and print, tyres and rubber components, chocolate and coffee products all sit on the list.

Whether a product is in scope is decided by its commodity code, not by how much of the commodity it contains or where the manufacturing took place. A UK-made item with a small timber or rubber element can be in scope in full.

From 30 December 2026, goods on that list cannot be released into the EU without a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) lodged in one of the EU's information systems.

The statement confirms the commodity was produced legally and on land that was not deforested after the end of 2020. Its reference number has to appear on the EU import declaration. No reference, no release.

The legal obligation sits with whoever places the goods on the EU market, usually your EU customer or their importer.

But the statement can only be made with information that comes from the supply chain – and if you are the manufacturer, you are the supply chain.

WM International says customers will need to know where the wood, rubber, coffee or cocoa in their product came from, down to the plot of land where it was grown.

They will need documents showing it was produced legally.

This applies whether they make the product from UK-sourced material or import the material, work it and re-export the result.

In the second case they are also the importer, so the burden of collecting the information from their own suppliers is entirely yours – and there is no UK equivalent of the EU system to help you gather it.

WM International has issued the following advice to impacted firms:

• Check the commodity codes you declare against the EUDR product list, and check that the codes are actually correct
• For each in-scope product, work out where the underlying commodity comes from and what documents you hold or can obtain from your suppliers
• Talk to your EU customers about how they intend to handle the statements, and agree who provides what.

If you make or ship anything on the list, get in touch before December, not after.