- Major soy traders like Cargill, ADM and Bunge announced their withdrawal from the Amazon soy moratorium, a move that could increase deforestation in the biome by 30% by 2045.
- Behind the exodus are farmers and ranchers’ associations and local politicians linked to agribusiness.
- Their abandonment of the agreement signals a “green light” for land speculators to clear rainforest for new soy crops, observers warn.
- Advancing deforestation may lead companies to lose market share and intensify agricultural failures due to the lack of rain.
Major soy traders operating in Brazil announced in early January that they would abandon one of the world’s most successful zero-deforestation agreements, known as the soy moratorium. As a result, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may increase by up to 30% by 2045, according to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), pushing the rainforest toward the much-feared tipping point.
The coup de grâce to the 20-year-long soy moratorium, under which companies voluntarily agreed to ban soy grown in areas deforested after 2008, came from the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries(Abiove). Representing some of the world’s largest soy traders, like Cargill, Bunge, Amaggi and ADM, the trade association announced in a statement on Jan. 5 that it “began negotiations to withdraw from the Soy Moratorium Commitment Agreement.” Brazil is the world’s largest soy exporter, and Abiove’s members account for nearly 45% of these shipments, according to 2022 data from commodity supply-chain watchdog Trase.
The decision followed a new law in Mato Grosso state, Brazil’s largest soy producer. The legislation, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows the state government to suspend tax breaks to companies adopting environmental criteria beyond those required by Brazilian law, such as the soy moratorium.
In Brazil, deforestation is permitted under rules for each biome — 20% for properties in the Amazon, 65-80% in the Cerrado, and so on. This means that a farmer who deforested their land after 2008 couldn’t sell soy to moratorium members even when complying with Brazilian deforestation laws.
“Abiove understands that legal certainty is an essential pillar for economic development and, therefore, is committed to continuing to ensure access for Brazilian soybeans and their by-products to the international market,” Abiove said, adding that the legacy of monitoring and expertise will not be lost.
Although the Mato Grosso law is currently in effect, it faces legal challenges before the Supreme Court.
“It was a decision made by Abiove’s member companies to leave the soy moratorium in order to maintain their tax subsidies,” Maurício Voivodic, executive director at WWF-Brasil, told Mongabay in a phone interview. The NGO is one of the moratorium’s members alongside other environmental organizations like IPAM and Greenpeace.
Mato Grosso’s new law is part of a counteroffensive led by farmers, ranchers and local politicians against the federal government’s crackdown on illegal deforestation and increasing pressure from international markets for deforestation-free products.
The political force was born out of this group, Voivodic said. “The moratorium was good for industry, for Brazilian agriculture in terms of international reputation, and for the Amazon Rainforest because it effectively reduced deforestation. It just wasn’t good for rural producers or those politicians linked to the agribusiness who only benefit and profit from deforestation.”
Mato Grosso Governor Mauro Mendes hailed Abiove’s move as a victory for the state, saying the agreement requirements “were causing losses to our producers, creating a rule that went far beyond what is established by Brazilian law.”
The Mato Grosso Soybean and Corn Producers Association (Aprosoja-MT), a major supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies between 2019 and 2022, said the abandonment of the moratorium “is a victory for soybean producers who, for so many years, have been harmed by a private and illegal agreement.” The Mato Grosso Federation of Agriculture and Livestock (Famato) also celebrated, saying that “private agreements cannot legislate on national territory, nor can they override Brazilian law.”
According to Voivodic, the collapse of the moratorium works as an incentive to open new areas for soy crops in the Amazon and elsewhere, including land-grabbed public areas, a common crime in Brazil due to the poor land registry system.
Voivodic said the deal’s demise is already having an impact on the ground: the prospect of growing soy in recently deforested areas means a sharp increase in land prices and has set into motion the destructive land-grabbing machine. “All of this is giving the green light to these rural producers, land speculators and invaders of public land to clear forests with the prospect of being able to produce soybeans in the cleared area and sell them on the market,” he said.
A shot in the foot
Studies show that the moratorium didn’t prevent the expansion of soy farms into the Amazon, which increased by more than 300% from 2009 to 2022. In the municipalities monitored by the initiative, however, deforestation decreased by 69% in the same period. According to experts, this demonstrates the initiative’s effectiveness in protecting the rainforest while still allowing for agricultural expansion.
“I cannot understand how a serious Brazilian producer, who understands his business, can be advocating for an end to the soybean moratorium,” IPAM executive director André Guimarães told Mongabay in a phone interview. “In the short term, producers may even expand agricultural frontiers and earn more money selling soybeans, but in the medium/long term, you are damaging the very foundation of Brazilian agriculture, which is the fact that we have forests to distribute rainfall to irrigate crops.”
According to WWF’s Voivodic, Brazilian traders may also face challenges in reaching large international retailers such as Carrefour, Tesco and Walmart, which have adopted zero-deforestation policies. From the end of 2026, companies importing soy-based products into the European Union will also have to comply with the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), which will ban products originating in areas deforested after 2020.
“The industry, which had a highly efficient and low-cost [deforestation control] mechanism, will need to develop and present to its buyers individual mechanisms that are more expensive, less efficient, and raise questions,” Voivodic said. “The reputational risk and the cost increase significantly.”
The Amazon soy moratorium isn’t entirely dead, however, with the National Association of Grain Exporters (Anec) still standing by the deal — Cargill, Amaggi and ADM are members of both Abiove and Anec. In a statement to Mongabay, Anec said that “the issue remains under review by the Federal Supreme Court, and international market pressure for soybeans that do not come from deforested areas of the Amazon continues, which is why the association has no further comment to make at this time.”
Banner image: A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa.
Cargill weakens Amazon no-deforestation vow, raising concerns about wider backslide
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