EUDR geolocation for oil palm: plantations, smallholders and mills

Palm nuts and kernels, palm oil and palm kernel oil, oilcake, and a range of oleochemicals (glycerol, fatty acids, fatty alcohols) are in Annex I (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Annex I). Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 limits several chemical entries to products "synthesized using oil palm", and adds further palm-based oleochemicals, some from 30 December 2027 (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102).

What oil palm files tend to look like

Oil palm comes both from large estates and from small independent growers supplying mills. The two produce very different files:

• Estates are far above four hectares, so each block needs a polygon (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(28)). Estate boundaries often come from a GIS as shapefiles in a national grid or UTM, and need converting to WGS 84.
• Smallholders supplying a mill can be points, if four hectares or less.
• Size. Detailed estate boundaries add up quickly against the 25 MB per statement (Information System validation rules, Geolocation data size); the Commission's advice is fewer points along straight edges (GeoJSON File Description, Common errors 16).

Problems to look for

• These coordinates are not in WGS84 degrees (COORD-006): estate shapefiles still in UTM or a national grid.
• This plot has a hole in it (GEOM-005): plantation blocks drawn around villages, roads or conservation set-asides as holes.
• The file is larger than 25 MB (FILE-003): high-resolution boundaries over the size limit.
• Two plots in this file overlap or are identical (PLAUS-002): the same smallholder supplying two mills in one file.