RIO DE JANEIRO: The world’s biggest meat processing company, Brazil’s JBS, announced a plan Wednesday to ensure by 2025 that cows it purchases are not raised on deforested land, after facing accusations of fueling destruction of the Amazon.
The company also said it was launching a fund to promote the preservation of the rainforest with a contribution of 250 million reals (RM186.2 million) over five years and a total funding goal of one billion reals, to be raised partly through donations.
“We at JBS are assuming our obligation to carry out the necessary transformation of our supply chain,“ chief executive Gilberto Tomazoni told an online news conference.
“But we also want to go beyond our obligation. We want to be agents of change by investing in and supporting initiatives that will have a positive impact on the Amazon region and the people who live there, because we know how important the rainforest is in addressing climate change.”
JBS has repeatedly been accused of “cattle laundering,“ a practice in which animals from ranches that are blacklisted for illegally clearing Amazon land are transferred to ones with a clean environmental record.
The company says it has eradicated deforestation from its direct supply chain, but admits it is currently unable to verify cattle supplied to its suppliers by third-party ranches.
The new initiative revolves around a digital “green platform” that will require JBS suppliers to provide full tracing information on all cattle by the end of 2025.
JBS, which exports worldwide, vowed the information would be publicly available.
Brazil faces mounting pressure, including from international investors and trading partners, to slow surging deforestation.
Last year, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 85.3%, to a record 10,123 km² — nearly the size of Lebanon.
Some European countries have threatened to scupper a trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Brazil is a member, over the issue.
And global investment firms managing close to US$4 trillion (RM16.6 trillion) in assets wrote to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in June urging him to change policies blamed for accelerating the destruction.
In July, one of the funds, Nordea Asset Management, announced it was divesting from JBS over concerns about deforestation in its supply chain. — AFP
