EUDR for Furniture Importers: What Dutch Buyers Need From Indian Suppliers (2026 Guide)

Last updated: 27 October 2026. Written for furniture importers, wholesalers and retailers in the Netherlands and the wider EU.

If you import wooden furniture from India into the Netherlands, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) changes your paperwork from 30 December 2026. After that date, every container of wooden tables, beds, cabinets or sideboards that clears customs into the EU needs a due diligence statement behind it. That statement relies on information only your supplier can give you: which wood was used, where it was grown, and proof that it was harvested legally.

As a solid wood furniture manufacturer and exporter in Jodhpur, we look at the EUDR from the supplier's side. This guide explains what the regulation asks of a Dutch furniture importer, what India's low-risk classification does and does not change, and the exact documents you should be asking your Indian supplier for now, before the first container of 2027 is booked.

What Is the EUDR?

The EUDR is the EU's regulation on deforestation-free products. It replaces the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which Dutch timber and furniture importers have worked with since 2013. The EUTR focused on legality: was the wood harvested legally? The EUDR keeps that test and adds a second one. The wood must also come from land that was not deforested after 31 December 2020, and the importer must be able to show where it was grown, down to the plot of land.

The regulation covers seven commodities: wood, cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber and soya, plus products made from them. For our industry, the important point is that wood is covered all the way through to finished furniture. A dining table is treated as a wood product just as a sawn plank is.

Three conditions must be met before a product can be placed on the EU market or exported from it:

1. Deforestation-free: the wood was not harvested from land converted from forest after 31 December 2020, and harvesting did not cause forest degradation.
2. Legal: it was produced in line with the relevant laws of the country of production, in this case India. That includes land-use rights, forestry rules, felling and transport permits, labour and tax rules.
3. Covered by a due diligence statement: the operator has submitted a statement in the EU information system and has a reference number for it.

EUDR Dates: Has It Been Delayed Again?

The EUDR has been postponed twice, so many importers are understandably asking whether 30 December 2026 is a real date. As of today, it is. The second postponement was made through Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, published in the Official Journal on 23 December 2025. That amendment also asked the Commission to carry out a simplification review. The Commission published its report on 4 May 2026 and did not propose any further change to the dates.

The middle row catches a lot of small Dutch importers by surprise. The six-month extension for micro and small companies does not cover wood products that were already under the EUTR, and wooden furniture under heading 9403 was. If you are a small company that imports dining tables, beds, cabinets or sideboards, plan for 30 December 2026, not June 2027. The Dutch government's business portal gives the same advice to anyone trading in wood or wood products.

What matters is when goods are placed on the market, which for imports means release for free circulation by customs. A container that leaves Mundra in mid-November and clears in Rotterdam in January 2027 falls under the EUDR. If you are ordering now for delivery in the first quarter of 2027, the EUDR already applies to that order.

Is Wooden Furniture Covered by the EUDR? The CN Codes

Yes. Annex I of the EUDR lists the products in scope by CN code. For furniture, these are the lines to check against your import declarations:

Two practical notes. First, mixed-material furniture is still in scope if it is classified under these codes. A mango wood and iron industrial table is still 9403 60. Second, the packaging itself (pallets, crates and cartons used only to protect or carry goods) is generally excluded when it is not the product being sold. The Commission's Annex I delegated act, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102, entered into force on 18 September 2026. It removed some products from scope, such as aircraft and motor vehicle seats, but wooden furniture was not among them.

The HS classification of each item also drives your import duty, so it is worth getting right once and using the same codes everywhere. Our guide to importing furniture from India covers classification and EU duty rates in more detail.

Who Is Responsible: Operator, Downstream Operator or Trader?

The EUDR assigns different duties depending on your role in the supply chain. For a typical Dutch furniture business, it works like this:

• Operator (the importer of record). If your company imports the furniture from India and it is released for free circulation in your name, you are the operator. You carry out due diligence and submit the due diligence statement before the customs declaration is lodged. The reference number goes on the customs declaration.
• Downstream operator. If you buy furniture that someone else has already placed on the EU market and you process it further, for example by adding upholstery, you do not submit a new statement. You keep records of your suppliers, their statement reference numbers and your customers.
• Trader. If you buy furniture from an EU importer and resell it, for example as a retailer or web shop, you also do not file a new statement. You keep supplier and customer records for five years. Large traders must also register this information in the EU system.

Your Indian supplier is not an EU operator and does not file in TRACES. In practice, though, the supplier is the only party that can provide most of the information the operator needs. If your supplier cannot produce it, you cannot file, and your container waits at the port. That is why supplier readiness matters more than anything else on this list.

India Is Low Risk: What Simplified Due Diligence Means

The Commission's country benchmarking system (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093) places every country in a low, standard or high risk category. India is classified as low risk. For Dutch buyers sourcing from India, this is good news, but it is often misread as "no EUDR work needed". That is not correct.

For products from a low-risk country, the operator may use simplified due diligence (Article 13). Here is what that changes and what it does not:

So the workload drops, but the information requirement stays. If you receive information suggesting that wood might not comply, such as a mixed-source batch or a gap in the felling paperwork, the full due diligence process applies again for that product.

What the Due Diligence Statement Needs, and Where It Comes From

Most of the content of a due diligence statement comes from the supply chain, not from your own office. For each shipment or product line, you will need:

• The trade name and type of product, and its CN code
• The quantity, as net mass in kg and, for wood, volume or number of units
• The country of production (India) and, where relevant, the region
• The common and scientific name of every wood species used, for example mango (Mangifera indica) or sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo). For acacia, the exact Acacia species must be named.
• The geolocation of every plot of land where the timber was grown
• The date or time range of harvest
• Name, address and email of the supplier
• Evidence that the wood is deforestation-free and was produced legally

Geolocation for Indian Mango, Acacia and Sheesham Wood

Geolocation is the part that worries importers most, and the part where Indian hardwood supply chains are quite different from tropical forest timber.

Most of the mango, acacia and sheesham used in Rajasthan's furniture industry is not forest timber. It comes from trees outside forests: old mango orchards that have stopped fruiting, sheesham planted along farm boundaries and canals, and acacia grown on agricultural land. This is helpful under the EUDR, because farmland that has been orchard or cropland for decades is not land that was deforested after 2020. But it also means a single container can contain wood from many small farms.

The rules for plot geolocation are:

• Coordinates in decimal degrees with at least six decimal places (WGS84), usually submitted as a GeoJSON file.
• For plots of 4 hectares or less, a single latitude and longitude point is enough.
• For plots of more than 4 hectares, a polygon outlining the plot boundary is required.

Because most Indian farm holdings that supply furniture timber are small, single points cover the majority of plots. The real work is collecting them reliably: timber contractors and sawmills have to record which farm each log batch came from, and that record has to follow the wood through drying, machining and assembly. A supplier who mixes untraced timber into a production run cannot give you a clean statement for that run.

For more on why these species are favoured by European buyers, see our comparisons of mango wood vs sheesham wood and mango wood vs acacia wood.

EUDR Document Checklist: What to Ask Your Indian Furniture Supplier

Use this as a supplier questionnaire before you place orders that will clear customs after 30 December 2026:

One point to be clear about: an FSC or PEFC certificate is useful supporting evidence, but it does not replace EUDR due diligence. Certification schemes do not automatically provide plot-level geolocation, and the EU has not recognised any scheme as proof of compliance on its own.

How Pindel Handicraft Prepares EU Orders for the EUDR

For EU-bound orders, we prepare an EUDR information pack alongside the normal export documents. It contains the product list with CN codes, the species with scientific names, the quantities, harvest periods and plot geolocation for the timber used in your order, our timber purchase records, and the legality documents that apply to that timber. We keep EU orders in separate, traced timber batches so the information in the pack matches the wood that is actually in your container.

Your company still submits the due diligence statement; that is the operator's legal duty and cannot be handed to us. What we can do is make sure you have everything you need well before the vessel sails, in a format your customs broker or compliance team can use directly. If you are comparing suppliers, our checklist on how to vet an Indian furniture supplier is a useful starting point. Ask every shortlisted supplier for a sample EUDR pack before you sign a purchase order.

Penalties and Enforcement in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the NVWA (Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority) is the competent authority. It inspects whether companies meet the EUDR requirements. Dutch Customs checks goods and due diligence statements at import. Statements are submitted in TRACES, the EU information system.

Member states set the penalties, but the regulation sets the minimum. Penalties must include fines with a maximum of at least 4% of the company's total annual EU turnover, confiscation of the products and of revenue earned from them, and temporary exclusion from public procurement and public funding for up to 12 months. In practice, the most immediate cost for most importers is simpler: a container that cannot clear customs because the statement reference number is missing or the data does not match.

A Practical Timeline for Orders Arriving Around the Deadline

1. Now: list your wooden product lines and CN codes. Confirm whether your company is the operator for each one. Ask each Indian supplier for a sample EUDR information pack.
2. Before placing orders for Q1 2027 delivery: agree in the purchase contract that EUDR information is delivered with the shipping documents, and that traced timber is used for your order.
3. At production: ask for the species and timber batch details to be confirmed during production, not after shipment. It is easiest to add this to the checks you already run (see our guide to quality control in furniture manufacturing).
4. Before customs clearance: submit the due diligence statement in TRACES and pass the reference number to your customs broker.
5. After clearance: keep the statement and supporting documents for five years, and pass the reference number on to your business customers so they can keep their own records.

Add an extra week or two to your planning for the first few shipments after 30 December 2026. Customs systems, brokers and suppliers will all be using the new process for the first time. Our guide to FOB, CIF and EXW shipping terms also explains who arranges what between factory and port, which affects who collects which documents.

Frequently Asked Questions About the EUDR and Furniture

Does the EUDR apply to furniture?

Yes. Wooden furniture under CN codes 9403 30, 9403 40, 9403 50, 9403 60 and 9403 91, and seats with wooden frames under 9401, are listed in Annex I of the EUDR. Mixed-material furniture is covered when it is classified under these codes.

When does the EUDR apply to wooden furniture?

From 30 December 2026. This date applies to medium and large companies, and also to micro and small companies importing wooden furniture under heading 9403, because these products were already covered by the EU Timber Regulation. The 30 June 2027 date only applies to micro and small companies for products that were outside the old EUTR Annex.

Has the EUDR been delayed again?

No. After the second postponement in December 2025, the Commission published its simplification review on 4 May 2026 without proposing new dates. As of 27 October 2026, 30 December 2026 still applies.

Is India low risk under the EUDR?

Yes. India is in the low-risk category of the EU country classification. Importers can use simplified due diligence, which removes the risk assessment and mitigation steps unless there is information indicating a risk. Geolocation, species, legality evidence and the due diligence statement are still required.

Who submits the due diligence statement for furniture imported from India?

The EU company that places the furniture on the EU market for the first time, usually the importer of record. The Indian exporter does not file in TRACES, but must provide the information the importer needs.

Is an FSC certificate enough for EUDR compliance?

No. FSC or PEFC certification can support your due diligence, but it does not replace it. You still need plot geolocation and the other information required in the due diligence statement.

Do retailers that buy from a Dutch importer need to file a statement?

No. Traders and downstream operators do not submit new statements. They must keep records of their suppliers, the statement reference numbers and their customers for five years, and large companies must also register this information in the EU system.

What happens to furniture already in stock before 30 December 2026?

Products placed on the EU market before the application date are not retroactively subject to the new statement requirement. Furniture released for free circulation from 30 December 2026 onwards is.

Related Guides

• How to Import Furniture from India: Complete Guide
• Why India Is a Leading Furniture Sourcing Destination in 2026
• Solid Wood vs Engineered Wood for International Buyers
• Sustainable Furniture Manufacturing in India
• Browse our solid wood dining room furniture

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 (Official Journal, 23 December 2025)
• European Commission, report on the EUDR simplification review, COM(2026) 191, 4 May 2026
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 amending Annex I (in force 18 September 2026)
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093, country classification list (European Commission Green Forum)
• Ondernemersplein (Dutch government business portal), published by the NVWA: "EUDR: wat betekent dit voor u?"

This article explains the EUDR from a supplier's practical point of view and is not legal advice. Check your own obligations with your customs broker or a compliance advisor.