EUTR and EUDR Compliance for Furniture Sourced in Vietnam

Wood furniture exported from Vietnam to the EU is subject to two overlapping timber regulations. Understanding what each one requires — and what your suppliers need to provide — is the difference between a clean shipment and a customs hold.

EUTR in a nutshell

EUTR — the baseline

The EU Timber Regulation has been in force since 2013. It requires EU operators placing timber and timber-derived products on the market to exercise due diligence: assess the risk that the wood was illegally harvested, and mitigate that risk before the product enters the EU market.

For furniture buyers, this means knowing the species, country of harvest, and quantity of wood in your products — and being able to demonstrate that you verified the legality of the supply chain. A supplier who cannot tell you where their wood comes from fails this test.

EUDR — the upgrade

The EU Deforestation Regulation expands on EUTR significantly. It applies to wood products placed on the EU market from December 2025 for large operators, and June 2026 for SMEs.

EUDR requires importers to prove that wood was not harvested from land deforested after December 31, 2020. This means geolocation data — GPS coordinates for the harvest plot — not just a country of origin declaration. The documentation burden is substantially higher than EUTR.

For Vietnam-sourced furniture this creates a real traceability challenge. Vietnamese factories often source timber from multiple countries across Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. The supply chain between forest and factory floor is long and documentation gaps are common.

What FSC certification changes

FSC chain of custody certification from your supplier does not automatically satisfy EUDR requirements. But it demonstrates that the wood was sourced from responsibly managed forests with a documented supply chain — which significantly reduces the due diligence burden and provides a defensible paper trail.

For premium furniture brands selling into the EU, FSC is increasingly the baseline expectation, not a differentiator.

What your supplier needs to provide

At minimum: wood species, country of harvest, quantity, and evidence of legal harvest. For EUDR compliance: geolocation coordinates for the harvest plot and a due diligence statement.

If your supplier cannot provide these documents, the product cannot be legally placed on the EU market. That is not a risk to manage after shipment — it is a qualification requirement before production starts.

How LTV handles this

LTV verifies EUTR and EUDR documentation as part of the standard compliance process for all wood furniture orders. We confirm which documents apply, collect them from the supplier, and flag gaps before they become a customs problem.

If a supplier cannot provide adequate documentation, we raise it before production starts — not at the point of shipment clearance.

See our Sourcing Services or read about Vietnam vs China sourcing for furniture brands. Contact us to discuss compliance documentation for your Vietnam orders.