- Before
- Signs her name to “negligible risk” after joining plot files, satellite results, documents and lots by hand — and wants to see the plot, not a score.
- Now
- Opens each shipment on the map with the agents' findings and sources; excludes, accepts the rebuilt lot, signs the risk and submits.
One shipment of cocoa, from a cleared plot to a filed statement
Shipment CI-2026-311: 18,400 kg of cocoa beans in 292 sealed bags from the Coopérative Agricole de Sassandra-Nord (CASN) in Soubré, Côte d'Ivoire, through Lagune Cacao Export SA. It loads at San-Pédro on 14 December on MV Celestine Bay; customs entry at Antwerp is planned for 6 January 2027, after the 30 December start, so it needs a statement. Here is Wednesday 14 October, screen by screen, in the working solution.
- 01Wednesday morning
The plots of the lot, over satellite images
Amélie Dubois · EUDR Compliance OfficerAmélie owns the due diligence system at Kestrel & Vane Foods B.V. Her plot check opens on the six shipments that need her, 77 days before 30 December, and on CI-2026-311: 23 plots, 71.6 ha, drawn over imagery of 6 October 2026. Beside the map runs the chain from plot to cooperative lot L-CASN-2610-07, to the exporter, the shipment and the statement. One plot, P-0458, is outlined in red.
On the chain: “Statement · Draft waiting for the lot · Cannot be filed while P-0458 is in the lot.”
- 02Overnight, 02:40–03:31
Seven agents ran on the lot, and show their plans
The agentsThe Geolocation agent found 23 of 23 plots valid after CASN confirmed the fix to P-0471's crossed ring and sent a walked polygon for P-0502, a 5.3 ha plot first sent as a point. The Forest agent clipped both 2020 forest maps to the 23 plots, compared them with dated imagery to 2026 and handed P-0458 to Amélie. The Legality agent matched 23 producer cards and land documents; the Chain agent traced 292 bags by seal, 46 of them from P-0458. Amélie opens any agent's plan to see each step, its source and its confidence.
The Forest agent's limit: “Never decides alone when the sources disagree; never clears a plot with loss in forest.”
- 0309:34
She excludes the plot, with a reason code
Amélie Dubois · EUDR Compliance OfficerP-0458 is 6.2 ha and delivered 2,900 kg to this lot. Both 2020 maps show 1.4 ha of forest on it, and the images of 14 February and 9 July 2022 show 1.1 ha cleared between March and June 2022: confidence 97%. Next door, P-0462 lost 0.3 ha of canopy in 2023, but both maps class it as cocoa agroforestry in 2020, so the agent marks it no deforestation. Amélie excludes P-0458 under EX-01, from every lot and future purchase, and asks the Chain agent to rebuild the lot.
On the form: “Signed by Amélie Dubois, EUDR Compliance Officer. The exclusion and its sources go on the audit trail.”
- 04The next two minutes
The lot is rebuilt bag by sealed bag
Chain agentThe Chain agent finds P-0458's 46 bags by seal, CI-S-7724101 to 146, and proposes 46 bags from four verified CASN plots bought the same week and not yet in a lot: P-0461 (12 bags), P-0466 (11), P-0479 (13) and P-0490 (10), 2,900 kg in all. The Forest agent re-checks them: no forest in 2020, no loss. The Geolocation agent validates their polygons, the volume guard keeps every plot under the 800 kg/ha ceiling for Nawa, and the Outreach agent asks the CASN warehouse to swap the bags.
The Chain agent's limit: never goods of unknown origin in a lot, and never a reassignment without a seal scan.
- 0509:36 · seal scan
26 plots, the same 18,400 kg — she accepts the lot
Amélie Dubois · EUDR Compliance OfficerThe warehouse keeper scans the seals: 46 bags out, 46 in, 292 bags and 18,400 kg net on the warehouse scale. The lot now holds 26 plots on 79.3 ha, and the four new plots are drawn on the map as added in the repair. The Risk agent re-assesses and the DDS agent drafts the statement with 26 polygons. Amélie can accept the rebuilt lot or send it back to the Chain agent with a note; she accepts.
“Lot rebuilt: 26 plots · 79.3 ha · 18,400 kg · 292 bags.”
- 06In plain words
She asks why, and every answer cites its source
Amélie Dubois · EUDR Compliance OfficerAnyone on the programme can ask about a plot, shipment, supplier or statement in plain words. Amélie asks why P-0458 was taken out. The answer gives the forest on both 2020 maps, the dated images of 2022 and the bag swap, each with a numbered citation that opens the map, the image or the purchase record, and it opens the plot on the map.
“Land deforested after 31 Dec 2020 can never supply a compliant product.”
- 07Article 10
Fourteen criteria, from (a) to (n), each with its source
Risk agentThe Risk agent drafts the assessment against Article 10(2). Country risk, forest in the area of production and corruption stay medium: Côte d'Ivoire is standard risk in the 2025 benchmark and the documents are cross-checked to registers. Deforestation is now low because the cleared plot is excluded, and the risk of mixing is low because the lot is segregated by seal, scanned at 09:36. The conclusion reads negligible after mitigation.
The Risk agent's limit: “Never signs a conclusion; a person does.”
- 0809:44 · submitted
Nine checks pass; she signs and submits
Amélie Dubois · EUDR Compliance OfficerThe DDS agent filled the statement from the order, the lot and the bill of lading: operator EORI NL8214477309, HS 1801 00 00, 18,400 kg, Côte d'Ivoire, a GeoJSON of 26 polygons at 412 KB. All nine checks before filing pass. Amélie signs the risk conclusion and the Article 4(2) declaration, and the statement is accepted: reference 26NLKVF8Q2X7T4, verification K7Q2M9TD. One click sends both numbers to Jonas Weber and the customs broker.
After filing: “Filed and watched. A new loss alert on any plot opens a review and a drafted amendment or withdrawal.”
- 09The rest of the season
Every shipment arriving 30 Dec – 31 Mar, check by check
Tomás Reyes · Sourcing ManagerCI-2026-311 now shows as submitted among the 48 shipments arriving by 31 March, each with its geolocation, forest, legality, chain, risk and filing status. Tomás sees which supplier holds a shipment up before the vessel is booked: three plots over 4 ha sent as points for GH-2026-207, a mill mixing fruit from six unmapped growers for ID-2026-089, an expired cutting permit for CM-2026-031.
- 10When the maps disagree
Fourteen plots where a person decides
Forest agentWhere the two 2020 maps disagree, often cocoa agroforestry or shade coffee read as forest by one source, the Forest agent does not decide. The plot goes to the disagreements queue with both classes, the imagery and its confidence, and the Outreach agent asks the cooperative for a dated field photo. The plot stays out of statements until a person decides: not forest, or exclude.
On the queue: “Where both sources agree the agent proposes; where they disagree a person decides, with field evidence.”