BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Supermarket giant Carrefour’s support for French farmers’ protests against a trade deal between the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur has sparked a strong response in Brazil, including a refusal to supply beef to Carrefour stores in Brazil.
Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard announced in social media posts last week that the French company would stop buying beef from all Mercosur countries, including Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bompard wrote that he agrees with French producers’ arguments that Mercosur beef is an unfair competitor due to lower production costs resulting from fewer environmental and sanitary requirements.
The director encouraged other retailers to follow suit.
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Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry called Bompard’s move protectionist, saying it was taken “without any technical criteria.”
The decision also angered Brazilian meat packers. Although France accounts for only a small share of Brazil’s beef exports, meatpackers worried that Carrefour’s decision would damage its reputation in other markets.
Beef giants JBS and Marfrig stopped deliveries to Brazil’s vast Carrefour supermarket chain, including food warehouse giant Atacadao, last Friday. Both companies declined to comment on the boycott to The Associated Press, but Agriculture Minister Carlos Fávaro confirmed this.
“We support the response of the meat packers. If Brazilian beef is not good enough for the shelves of Carrefour in France, it is not good enough for the shelves of Carrefour in Brazil,” Faváro told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Monday.
Carrefour Group in Brazil acknowledged the boycott in a statement, although there is no shortage of beef in stores yet. It said it “appreciates and trusts the Brazilian agricultural sector, with which it maintains a solid relationship and partnership.”
“Unfortunately, the decision to suspend meat supplies will impact customers, especially those who rely on the company to supply their homes with quality and responsible products,” the statement said. “The company is in constant dialogue in search of solutions that will allow it to resume the delivery of meat to its stores as quickly as possible, while respecting the obligations it has towards its more than 130,000 Brazilian employees and millions of Brazilian customers in the whole country.”
The backdrop to the conflict is the trade deal between the EU and Mercosur, which would increase imports of agricultural products from South America to EU countries. French farmers fear this will affect their livelihoods. An initial agreement was reached in 2019, but negotiations have since stalled due to opposition including some European governments.
Brazil’s agricultural sector also fears that the European Union’s upcoming deforestation regulation will ban the sale of forest products within the 27-nation EU bloc if companies cannot prove their goods are not linked to deforestation. The scope includes soy and livestock, Brazil’s main agricultural exports. Nearly half of the country’s livestock are raised in the Amazon, where 90% of deforested land has been turned to pasture since 1985, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit network. The date of its introduction remains uncertain.
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