How to Collect GPS Coordinates from Suppliers for EUDR

79% of importers don't have GPS coordinates for their production plots. That's not a knock on them. Most suppliers have never been asked to provide coordinates before, let alone in a specific format for an EU regulatory database. But without that data, you can't file a Due Diligence Statement, and your goods don't clear customs.

This guide covers exactly what geolocation data the EUDR requires, how to collect it from suppliers at origin, and how to catch bad data before you submit.

What geolocation data EUDR actually requires

The regulation is specific. Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 requires geolocation data for every plot of land where your commodities were produced. Not the processing facility. Not the exporter's warehouse. The actual fields where the crops were grown or the animals were raised.

Coordinates must be in WGS84 decimal degrees format. That's the coordinate system your phone uses by default: latitude and longitude as decimal numbers, like 6.347821, -0.218934. They must be accurate to six decimal places, which gives you a ground precision of roughly 11 centimetres. A coordinate rounded to two decimal places covers an area of about 1 km². Nowhere near precise enough.

The distinction between point and polygon coordinates is one that trips up a lot of first-time operators. Whether you need one or the other depends on the size of the plot.

Point vs polygon: which applies to your suppliers

Plots of 4 hectares or smaller require a single GPS point, placed anywhere within the plot boundary. Plots larger than 4 hectares require a polygon: a series of coordinate pairs tracing the outer boundary of the field, with the final pair identical to the first (a "closed" polygon). The polygon must consist of at least 3 points.

In practice, most smallholder farmers in West Africa or Central America have plots under 4 hectares, so a single GPS point often suffices. Larger commercial farms and estates producing soy, palm oil, or rubber almost always exceed the threshold and need a full polygon.

The 4 ha threshold matters for another reason: it determines how easy collection will be. Getting one GPS point from a farmer is a five-minute job. Getting a full polygon requires walking or driving the perimeter with a recording device, or tracing the boundary from a satellite image. Don't assume polygon collection will follow the same timeline as point collection.

Three ways to collect coordinates from suppliers at origin

WhatsApp location sharing. For point coordinates, this is the most practical option with smallholder farmers who already have smartphones. Have the supplier open WhatsApp, go to the plot, and send their current location. The GPS precision from a modern smartphone is more than sufficient for a 6-decimal-place point coordinate. You or your data team then convert the shared location into decimal degrees for entry into TRACES NT.

KoboToolbox or ODK forms. For structured data collection across many suppliers, a mobile form deployed through KoboToolbox or ODK Collect works well. A field agent visits each farm, opens the form on a smartphone, and records the GPS point (or walks the polygon boundary using the GPS track feature). The data exports directly to a spreadsheet. This approach works without internet at point of capture and syncs when connectivity is available.

Satellite image tracing. For suppliers who can identify their plots on a satellite image, you can share a Google Earth or QGIS screenshot and ask them to mark the boundary. This works particularly well for larger commercial farms where a technical contact can identify the parcel. It also works when a field agent visit isn't feasible before your compliance deadline.

Each method has trade-offs. WhatsApp is fast but only gives you a point. KoboToolbox gives you structured polygon data but requires deploying field agents. Satellite tracing is asynchronous but depends on the supplier being able to read a map accurately. For most supply chains, you'll use all three depending on the supplier type.

What to do when your supplier doesn't have digital records

Many smallholder farmers know their land intimately but have never opened a mapping app. They can tell you the village, the neighbours' names, which side of the road the plot is on. None of that goes into a EUDR submission.

The most reliable approach here is a field agent, either your own logistics partner or a local NGO or cooperative with presence in the origin region. Provide a simple brief: stand at the plot, share your location via WhatsApp (for points) or walk the perimeter with GPS tracking on (for polygons). You don't need a surveyor. You need someone with a smartphone who can follow instructions.

If a field agent visit isn't possible before your deadline, a signed declaration from the supplier stating the approximate plot location combined with satellite image cross-referencing can work as an interim step. But this creates a gap in your audit trail. Authorities reviewing your DDS can ask for the underlying data collection record, and a satellite estimate without a ground-verified coordinate is a weaker basis than a GPS reading.

One thing that doesn't help: asking the supplier to provide their address or registration number without coordinates. That data doesn't fulfill the Article 9 geolocation requirement, and no amount of certificates substitutes for it.

Format requirements: GeoJSON, decimal degrees, and TRACES upload

TRACES NT, the EU system where you submit your Due Diligence Statement, accepts geolocation data as GeoJSON. GeoJSON is an open standard for encoding geographic features as JSON, and it's what you'll need to upload alongside your DDS fields.

A point in GeoJSON looks like this:

{
  "type": "Feature",
  "geometry": {
    "type": "Point",
    "coordinates": [-0.218934, 6.347821]
  }
}

Note the coordinate order in GeoJSON: longitude first, then latitude. This is the opposite of how most people write coordinates verbally. It's a common source of errors when building upload files manually.

A polygon entry wraps the boundary coordinates in a Polygon geometry type with a nested array. The coordinates must form a closed ring, so the last pair must match the first. Most GIS tools (QGIS, Google Earth Pro, KoboToolbox) can export to GeoJSON directly.

If your coordinates arrive as degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS) format — for example, 6°20'52"N, 0°13'8"W — you need to convert them to decimal degrees before submission. The conversion is: decimal = degrees + (minutes/60) + (seconds/3600). Many importers hit this issue when working with older land registries or agricultural authorities in origin countries that still use DMS on official documents.

Common mistakes and how to spot bad data before submission

There are a handful of data quality failures that appear consistently when importers first collect GPS coordinates at scale.

Cooperative or office coordinates. A supplier who doesn't understand the request will often provide the GPS location of their local cooperative office, trading post, or home, rather than the production plot. This is more common than you'd expect. The giveaway: coordinates that cluster tightly around a single point for dozens of nominally separate farms, or coordinates that fall on a building when viewed in a satellite map.

Insufficient decimal places. A coordinate like 6.35, -0.22 has been rounded to two decimal places, giving a positional uncertainty of roughly 1.1 km. This is not compliant. Anything below six decimal places should be flagged and re-collected.

DMS format in a decimal field. If you receive data like "6.2052" and the submitter meant 6°20'52", you're looking at a transcription error that places the coordinate several kilometres from the actual location. Always check whether incoming data has gone through a conversion step.

Coordinates outside the declared country. Run a basic geographic boundary check: if your supplier says they're in Ghana and the coordinates fall in Côte d'Ivoire, there's an error. Satellite imagery crosschecks catch this quickly.

Unclosed polygons. If the first and last coordinate pair of a polygon don't match exactly, the GeoJSON is invalid and TRACES will reject it. Some tools close polygons automatically; others don't.

Catching these errors before submission matters not just for regulatory reasons but practical ones: a rejected DDS delays customs clearance. TracePlot's methodology includes automatic validation against all of these checks as part of the data processing pipeline.

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Getting GPS data from suppliers is the most time-consuming part of EUDR compliance for most importers, and it's the part where data quality problems tend to accumulate quietly until submission. Having a clear collection process before you start is worth the upfront planning.

For a full walkthrough of what a completed DDS must contain, see EUDR Due Diligence Statement requirements.

TracePlot sends suppliers a data collection form and validates GPS coordinates automatically. Plans from EUR 59/month, with an EUR 49 deposit to reserve your onboarding slot. Get started today.