EUDR jute, hessian and coir sacks: are you in scope?

No. Jute, hessian and coir are not among the seven commodities the EUDR regulates, and none of the customs headings they are sold under appears in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. A business importing jute sacks, hessian cloth, coir doormats or coir rope has no EUDR due diligence obligation on those goods, however large the volume or wherever the fibre was grown. The regulation only reaches this sector if a product also contains wood, natural rubber or another of the seven regulated commodities as a separate component.

Why jute, hessian and coir sit outside Annex I

The EUDR regulates seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood — and a defined list of "relevant products" made from them, each tied to a specific Combined Nomenclature (CN) code. Jute and other bast fibres (CN Chapter 53), the woven and sack fabric made from them (CN Chapter 57 and heading 6305 for sacks and bags), and coir — coconut husk fibre and the rope, matting and brushware made from it (also largely Chapter 53, 57 and 46) — do not appear anywhere in Annex I. There is no general test in the regulation that catches a plant fibre because deforestation is plausibly linked to its cultivation somewhere; it catches named commodities under named CN codes, and bast and coconut fibres were never on that list, including after the most recent revision.

This puts jute, hessian and coir in the same position as cork and tea: a plant-derived material that looks, to a non-specialist, like exactly the kind of thing a deforestation regulation would cover, but which the regulation's drafters never brought into scope because it is not one of the seven named commodities.

Material	Typical product	EUDR status
Jute	Hessian sacks, jute bags, jute twine, burlap	Out of scope — not an Annex I commodity
Coir	Coir matting, doormats, coir rope, brush fibre	Out of scope — not an Annex I commodity
Other bast fibres	Sisal, kenaf, hemp sacking	Out of scope — not an Annex I commodity
Cotton	Cotton tote bags, canvas sacking	Out of scope — not an Annex I commodity
Natural rubber	Rubberised matting backing, rubber-coated gloves sold with sacks	In scope — Annex I rubber entry
Wood	Wooden pallet, crate or handle sold as the product	In scope — Annex I wood entry

Does it matter where the jute or coir was grown?

No. Country benchmarking, the mechanism the regulation applies to cocoa, coffee, palm, rubber, soya, cattle and wood sourcing to set a standard, low or high risk rating per country, is irrelevant here, because the question of scope is settled before origin ever comes into it. Jute is grown predominantly in Bangladesh and India, and coir in India and Sri Lanka — both have forested areas and both carry a standard or high country benchmark for the commodities the EUDR does regulate — but that benchmark has no bearing on a fibre the regulation does not list. A country's risk classification only matters once you are already handling a regulated commodity; it is not a separate trigger that can pull an unlisted material into scope on its own.

A worked example

Take a UK importer bringing in three container loads a month: hessian-wrapped jute sacks, loose coir fibre for horticultural use, and a smaller quantity of coir doormats finished with a rubber-latex backing. The sacks and the loose fibre need no EUDR paperwork at all — neither Chapter 53 raw jute and coir fibre nor Chapter 63 made-up sacks appears in Annex I. The doormats are different only because of the rubber backing: if natural rubber latex is used rather than a synthetic latex, that component is an Annex I rubber relevant product, and due diligence attaches to the rubber content of the doormat, not to the coir fibre woven through it. The same importer could rework the same product range into entirely regulated or entirely exempt depending on whether its backing is natural or synthetic rubber, which is worth confirming with the manufacturer rather than assuming either way.

How these goods are actually classified

Raw jute and other bast fibres fall under CN Chapter 53 (vegetable textile fibres other than cotton). Woven jute fabric and hessian cloth sit under CN Chapter 57 or the relevant heading of Chapter 53 depending on processing. Finished jute sacks and bags for packing goods are classified at CN heading 6305. Coir is handled similarly: raw coconut fibre falls within Chapter 53, coir yarn and rope under Chapter 56 or 57, and coir matting and mats typically under heading 4601 or 5702, with coir doormats sometimes falling under Chapter 57 or 94 depending on backing and finish. None of these chapters or headings is referenced anywhere in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, which lists only the specific headings tied to cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood. A customs agent's declared code is the quickest way to confirm this for your own goods, since "natural fibre" as a description covers plenty of material the regulation does not touch.

Where this sector can still get caught: components sold separately

The exemption attaches to the jute, hessian or coir item itself, not to everything packed or sold alongside it. Three situations bring part of a shipment into scope even though the sacking does not:

• Wooden pallets or crates sold as the product. If you import empty wooden pallets to resell, rather than using them to carry your sacks to a buyer, the pallets are a wood relevant product under Annex I in their own right. The packaging guide sets out this same product-versus-packaging distinction, using jute coffee sacks on wooden pallets as its own worked example.
• Natural rubber components. Rubber-backed coir matting, rubberised sack linings, or rubber gloves bundled with a sacking order bring the rubber component into scope, though not the jute or coir fabric around it.
• A branded hamper or gift set. A jute-bag gift hamper containing cocoa, coffee or a wood item inside it is in scope for whichever Annex I commodity is actually inside the bag, not for the bag. Scope follows the CN code of each component in a mixed product, not the finished item as a whole, the same logic that applies to any hamper, basket or gift set combining several materials.

In every one of these cases, the due diligence obligation attaches to the regulated component specifically. A jute sack full of green coffee is a coffee relevant product for due diligence purposes; the sack itself still carries none.

What if your sacks are used to transport a regulated commodity?

If you supply jute or hessian sacking to a cocoa, coffee or cattle feed importer who fills it with their own regulated product, you are not the one placing a relevant product on the market — they are, for the coffee or cocoa inside, not the sack you sold them. The sack manufacturer or distributor has no EUDR obligation arising from that sale. The buyer's due diligence statement concerns the commodity they put in the sack, and the sacking is simply how it was packed, in the same way a cardboard box carries no obligation when it is used to ship something that does.

Could a future Annex I revision bring jute or coir into scope?

It is possible but there is no indication of it. Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 lets the Commission add or remove products from Annex I by delegated act, and it has used that power once so far: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102, in force since 18 September 2026, removed cattle hides, skins and leather, re-treaded tyres, soya seeds for sowing and several other items, and added soluble coffee, certain palm oil derivatives, frozen cattle tongues and some soap products — all still drawn from the same seven base commodities. The full breakdown of that revision does not list jute, hessian, coir or any other bast fibre, and nothing in the Commission's public work programme for a further delegated act points at adding a new commodity family rather than adjusting products within the existing seven. Treat this as the current, verified position rather than a permanent guarantee, and recheck Annex I if you hear of a new delegated act.

Deadlines, if you sell a mixed product with a regulated component

These dates apply only to the wood, rubber or other Annex I component in a mixed shipment — never to the jute, hessian or coir itself, which has no deadline because it has no obligation.

Business size	Deadline for products already in Annex I	Deadline for the 2026/2102 additions
Large or medium operator or trader	30 December 2026	30 December 2027
Micro or small operator, product previously under the EU Timber Regulation	30 December 2026	30 December 2027
Micro or small operator, otherwise	30 June 2027	30 December 2027

Size bands follow the Directive 2013/34/EU thresholds: broadly micro up to 10 staff and €900,000 turnover, small up to 50 staff and €10 million turnover, medium up to 250 staff and €50 million turnover, large above that. The full deadline guide sets out how size and product history interact.

What to check before assuming your order is entirely out of scope

• Confirm the CN code your supplier or customs agent declares for the finished goods — sacking, cordage and matting of jute or coir normally sit under Chapters 53, 57 or heading 6305, none of which Annex I lists.
• Check whether anything is bundled with the sacking that is not jute, hessian or coir: a wooden pallet sold separately, a rubber-backed mat, a hamper with cocoa or coffee inside.
• If you are a sacking supplier to a cocoa, coffee or feed importer, confirm you are selling packaging for their product, not a finished product of your own that happens to contain a regulated commodity.
• Do not rely on a country's benchmark rating as a proxy for whether a material is regulated. Classification by CN code decides scope; country risk only matters afterwards, for a commodity that is already in scope.

Check what the EUDR actually requires of your specific product range rather than assuming a textile or matting business is automatically outside scope, or treating a regulated component bundled with your sacking as covered by the same exemption as the sacking itself.