- Surveys of Brazil’s beef industry found there is still a serious lack of transparency throughout the supply chain, including from slaughterhouses and retailers. If better regulations aren’t implemented, they could be exposed to 109 million hectares (270 million acres) of deforestation by 2025.
- The survey was conducted by Radar Verde, a cattle monitoring initiative made up of several climate groups. It reviewed the regulations and exposure to deforestation of dozens of companies in Brazil.
- Indirect suppliers of beef are the most difficult to track, the survey found, with none of the 132 companies or 67 retailers competently able to demonstrate whether cattle had been raised on illegally deforested land.
- Struggles to monitor indirect suppliers could pose a challenge for companies trying to meet the EU deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR), which will require suppliers to prove beef and other commodities exported to the EU aren’t sourced to illegally deforested land.
Surveys of the Brazilian cattle ranching industry have found that there is still a serious lack of transparency throughout the beef supply chain, including from slaughterhouses and retailers. This means there is little control over where beef comes from, suggesting that much of it could be contributing to illegal deforestation in the Amazon, according to Radar Verde, a cattle monitoring initiative made up of several climate groups.
Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef, and the Amazon is home to approximately 43% of the country’s cattle herds, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Over a 12-month span, starting last July, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles) of forest, according to the country’s national space research institute, INPE.
“Companies in the beef chain that have not yet adopted measures to control their direct and indirect suppliers are encouraged to be more responsible, with the risk of being deprived by consumers who increasingly adopt more conscious attitudes regarding the environment,” Radar Verde said in its 2023 report.
Cattle become difficult to track when they move between different suppliers without proper documentation. In many cases, the cattle graze on illegally deforested land and then enter legal herds, receiving ear tags and permits as if they’ve been grazing legally. Then they move onto slaughterhouses and supermarkets.
Direct suppliers of cattle, or the suppliers who own the cattle last, are easier to track, while indirect suppliers — who own the cattle earlier in their lives — often disappear from the records.
Brazil has come under increasing pressure to track direct and indirect suppliers, especially with the EU’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) scheduled to go into effect at the end of next year. The EUDR will require suppliers to prove beef and other commodities exported to the EU aren’t sourced to illegally deforested land. It could disqualify billions of dollars in beef.
To meet these newer, higher standards, officials are working on ambitious solutions like tagging and monitoring millions of cattle in the state of Pará by December 2025. Agriculture and Livestock Minister Carlos Fávaro said the country’s entire cattle sector will be traceable by 2032.
This year, Radar Verde looked at 67 supermarket chains and found that only three — Assaí, Carrefour and GPA — have control over direct suppliers. But none of the 67 have control over their indirect suppliers.
The three chains have taken more aggressive steps than other retailers, including maintaining an open dialogue with suppliers, aligning internal policies with UN Sustainable Development Goals to fight climate change and only purchasing beef from suppliers registered with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Federal Inspection Service.
According to the report, out of 132 companies in Brazil with slaughterhouses, only eight have a “high level of control” over the meat coming from direct suppliers, meaning they know where the cattle were raised and can reject animals grazed on illegally deforested land.
The eight companies include Marfrig, Ativo, Frigol, Frigorifico Fortefrigo, Frigorífico Rio Maria, JBS, Masterboi and Minerva.
Frigol said it works with Brazilian conservation NGO Imaflora and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to monitor direct suppliers in the Amazon and has implemented monitoring protocols for all states where they have production units.
“FriGol emphasizes that sustainability is at the center of its business strategy,” it told Mongabay in a statement. “…FriGol has achieved 100% compliance in the acquisition of cattle from its direct suppliers.”
However, none of the 132 companies have control over meat from indirect suppliers, the survey found. If cattle change ownership before arriving to the slaughterhouse, it’s almost impossible to know if they contributed to deforestation.
Even companies with tighter control over direct suppliers, such as JBS, are still exposed to high levels of deforestation, Radar Verde’s survey showed. The company is at risk of contributing to 9,666,567 hectares (23.8 million acres) of deforestation by 2025.
Vale Grande Industria e Comercio de Alimentos, which doesn’t have control over direct or indirect suppliers, is exposed to 4.2 million hectares (10.5 million acres) of deforestation — the second highest in Brazil after JBS, Radar Verde found.
In total, retailers and slaughterhouses are at risk of deforesting over 109 million hectares (270 million acres of deforestation by 2025, according to the survey.
In a statement, JBS said that Radar Verde hadn’t considered its corporate policies and sustainable procurement management systems. It said it has been assessing thousands of potential cattle-supplying farms daily through a geospatial monitoring system since 2009.
“Companies that have made the most progress in their controls are often criticized, and their transparency is used not as an incentive, but as a penalty,” its statement said.
Banner image: Cattle in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay.
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