Short answer
A usable pack has six parts: a shipment index that names the container and lists every wood input; a plot register with coordinates in a machine-readable file; a legality folder holding the land and harvest documents for those plots; a chain-of-custody trail reconciling volumes from plot to container; a supplier declaration signed by the mill covering species, quantity and cut-off compliance; and a pass-through folder for imported components, clearly labelled as such. The test of a pack is not its thickness — it is whether an auditor can pick any plot in the register and follow it forward to a volume on the packing list.
Part 1 — the shipment index
One page, at the front. Container number, bill of lading number, invoice number, product description, HS code, and a table of every wood input in the goods with its species, volume and origin route. This page is what lets a reviewer navigate the rest. Packs without it are the reason reviewers ask for everything again.
Part 2 — the plot register
A machine-readable geolocation file — GeoJSON is the practical format — with one record per plot carrying a plot identifier, coordinates, area, species, planting year and harvest period. Points are acceptable for plots below 4 hectares; larger plots need polygons. A PDF map is a picture, not a geolocation file, and cannot be loaded into the EU information system.
Every plot identifier in this file must appear again in the legality folder and in the volume reconciliation. If an identifier appears in one place and not the others, the pack has a hole, and that hole is what an auditor will find first.
Part 3 to 5 — legality, chain of custody, declaration
The legality folder holds land-use certificates or leases, harvest permits or the smallholder equivalent, and transport documents required by Vietnamese law. The chain-of-custody trail is a simple spreadsheet: plot volume in, log yard receipt, veneer output, press batch, panel count, container. The declaration is one signed page from the mill stating species, volumes, the plots involved and confirmation that no material came from land deforested after 31 December 2020.
None of this requires software. It requires that somebody at the mill writes down where each truckload came from on the day it arrives. Mills that do this have a pack ready in an hour; mills that do not cannot reconstruct it afterwards at any price.
Part 6 — the pass-through folder
Imported birch veneer, radiata pine, hardwood faces: keep these separate and label them for what they are — documents received from an upstream supplier, not evidence the mill generated. Include the mill's supplier risk assessment and the date of the last supplier review. Honest labelling here is what makes the rest of the pack credible.
Questions buyers ask about this
Can I get the pack before I place the order?+
You can get a complete pack from a past shipment before you order, and you should. You cannot get the pack for your own shipment before the material is harvested and processed, because it describes that specific material. Anyone offering you a pre-written pack for a future order is offering you a template.
What format should the geolocation file be in?+
GeoJSON is the practical working format and is what the EU information system accepts for upload. Ask for GeoJSON plus a human-readable summary table. Do not accept coordinates embedded in a Word document or written into an email body — they will need re-keying, and re-keying introduces errors you will be answering for.
How long must I keep the documentation?+
Five years from the date the products were placed on the market. Store it where a successor can find it, not on one person's laptop — five years is longer than most procurement staff stay in a role.
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LELOI EXIM GLOBAL CO., LTD · Tax ID 2802935153