Deforestation: Carrefour blamed for its meat supply in Brazil, the group denies

environment According to Reporter Brasil, Carrefour sources its supplies from a breeder accused of deforestation in the Amazon

Carrefour is the market leader in food distribution in Brazil. — SEBASTIEN SALOM GOMIS/SIPA

Attacked, Carrefour denies. The distribution group, market leader of food distribution in Brazil and accused; by the investigative media Reporter Brasil of sourcing beef indirectly from a breeder accused of of deforestation in the Amazon, denied this Tuesday “any supply of beef from the offending farmer”.

According to Reporter Brasil, one of Carrefour's suppliers in the country, Frialto, bought cattle that came from Bruno Heller’s farms, implicated in cases of illegal deforestation of the Amazon. Bruno Heller would have, according to the media, resorted to of “cattle laundering”, transferring cattle from herds implicated in deforestation to others that are not, some in the name of his daughter . “Following “ the alert raised by Reporter Brasil, Carrefour Brasil verified; in its database the absence of any supply of beef from the offending farmer; or members of his family,” Carrefour, whose Brazilian subsidiary “has a satellite geo-monitoring device for more than 33,000 farms in real time in Brazil”.

Dé ;ià attacked on its meat supply

The subject is recurrent for Carrefour, already; targeted by environmental NGOs on its meat supply in Brazil. In September 2022, the association Mighty Earth published a study of a hundred products distributed by the brand in Brazil, showing that two thirds of them came from the company. JBS, regularly targeted for cases of deforestation. The group reacted immediately by announcing the suspension of its collaboration with two JBS slaughterhouses supplying its subsidiaries in Brazil.

A few months later, Mighty Earth accused him of to be “always linked; to the worst Brazilian slaughterhouses” despite this advert. In its defence, Carrefour had then evoked “A malfunction in the suspension instructions,” particularly at the level of two stores recently transferred from the Maxxi brand (an offshoot of Grupo Big which the distributor has just taken over) at the same time. that of Atacadao. Carrefour has promised that beef sold under its brand will be totally “deforestation free” by 2026, and that this commitment would apply “in the same way to other brands sold in Carrefour stores by 2030”.