---
id: KB-AL-042
url: https://stage.codecontract.io/help/food-and-beverage/what-data-you-need-before-opening-traces
idioma: en
categoria: sector-alimentacion
subcategoria: normativa-pesca
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-AL-041, KB-AL-051, KB-AL-044]
citadoPor: [KB-AL-029, KB-AL-041, KB-AL-044, KB-AL-049, KB-AL-051]
---

# What data you need before opening TRACES

_The form takes twenty minutes. Gathering what it asks for, if you did not ask in advance, takes days._

**Responde a:** what data does a catch certificate require · requirements to export fish to the eu · vessel information for traces · fao area and catch dates where to get · preparing documentation before processing catch

Anyone processing this for the first time discovers the same thing: **the system is not the problem**. Filling in the boxes takes a morning. What takes days is getting a vessel owner, a supplier on another continent and sometimes a port authority to send you data only they hold — at a level of detail nobody anticipated.

## Where each piece of data comes from, and it is not you

| Data | Box | Who actually holds it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Validating authority | Box 1 | Selected from the system |
| Exporter | Box 8 | Your supplier |
| Vessel, flag and licence | Box 2 | The vessel owner |
| Species, FAO area, dates, weight | Box 3 | The fishing log |
| Master or licence holder | Box 5 | The vessel owner |
| **Transhipments, if any** | **Box 6 and 7** | **The vessel and the port** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Four of the six rows come from outside your company.** That is the real work and where the time goes: not in TRACES, but in the email sent to a vessel owner who is at sea and answers when they reach port. Whoever asks for that data **when closing the purchase** processes in a morning; whoever asks when about to process, waits.

## How to ask so it arrives

1. **Ask when closing the deal, not when processing** — At that point the supplier wants paying and answers; later, less so.
2. **Ask for the data, not for «the documentation»** — «FAO area and catch dates» gets answered; «the paperwork» does not.
3. **Through a channel that records what they sent and when** — If the data turns out wrong, you need to know who provided it.
4. **And check the format before you need it** — Weights use a decimal point and no thousands separator.

> [!WARNING]
> The detail that causes most rejections and gets anticipated least: **transhipments**. If the goods changed vessel at sea or in port, the certificate must record it, with estimated weight, date, position and receiving vessel. Nobody will volunteer that, because for the supplier it is routine and for the certificate it is a mandatory box.

> [!NOTE]
> **Procedure verified in 2026-08** against the European Commission's official help (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/IMSOC/tracesnt-help), catch certificate boxes. TRACES is operated by the Commission and **may change without notice**. Whether this applies to you and with what scope is for the competent authority and your adviser to determine.

**Can I start the draft without all the data?**

Yes: the system lets you save as draft and complete it progressively.

**What if the supplier does not know the FAO area?**

The vessel does. That is the question to pass upstream.

**Is this needed for every consignment?**

Scope is determined by the competent authority and your adviser.

## Ejemplos

**The vessel owner is at sea and the data takes ten days.**

- Requests data when closing the purchase, not when processing

→ The formality does not wait for the vessel.

**Nobody knows whether the consignment involved a transhipment.**

- Asks about transhipments in the initial request

→ The mandatory box does not appear at the last minute.

**Data arrives by messaging app with no record of who sent it.**

- Collects each data point through a recorded channel

→ A wrong figure has an author and a date.

**Weights arrive with commas and the system rejects them.**

- States the format in the request itself

→ It arrives usable first time.