Spanish supermarkets at risk of links to deforestation in Brazil

Several large Spanish supermarkets “they run the risk of being linked” with the deforestation imported into the Amazon and the Cerrado of Brazil by crops of soy, a cereal that Spain imported for the manufacture of animal feed, according to a study by the international organization Mighty Earth.

According to data from the environmental organization, last year “Spain imported four million tons of soybeans” from these areas, which constitutes a “risk” to link them with deforestation or the conversion of highly threatened ecosystems, since the sector “does not pay enough attention” to this problem.

Mighty Earth acknowledges that deforestation rates in the Amazon are declining, but reports that in the Cerrado, rates have nearly doubled in 2022.

Soybeans, he insists, are one of the crops that cause the destruction of that savannah, “home of the 5% of the world’s biodiversity species” as well as “displaced indigenous and traditional communities.”

Intensive livestock farming and meat products

Mighty Earth demands that the Government apply the European regulation because “is not being addressed adequately” the problem arising from the consumption of soy, rich in protein, for fattening “as fast as possible” of livestock farming in Spain and the resulting production of a wide range of products such as pork and turkey, cooked ham and sausages, among other products, which are sold in Spanish supermarkets.

The main author of the report and spokesperson for this environmental organization in Spain, Isabel Fernández, believes that these establishments “must be part of the solution to save Brazil’s precious biomes from further destruction.”

Mighty Earth claims that they have “dismantled the probable links of Spain’s largest retailers to deforestation caused by the soybean cultivation in the Amazon and the Cerrado and now we are calling for urgent measures”because the analysis of non-financial reports and purchasing policies of food chains reveals that the risk could also link several meat companies.

The document calls for action “the lack of will and a firm and transparent commitment on the part of the major soybean traders”by implementing the European Regulation on Combating Deforestation (EUDR), ensuring its application from 30 December 2024 and expanding its scope to include other forested lands and other biomes threatened by soy.

It also calls on supermarkets to publicly commit to a policy and action plan applicable to all natural ecosystems, as well as to establish a public platform for reporting on direct and indirect suppliers, in order to exclude from the supply chain all actors that contribute to deforestation and ecosystem conversion.

It may interest you

• Weather and lower prices lower agricultural expectations in Argentina
• Chinese soybean imports from Brazil rise 23% in September
• Argentine soybeans grow in optimal humidity conditions after rain