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Article

16 Apr 2019

Author:
Global Canopy

Brazil: 50 percent of the companies involved in domestic soy production have yet to commit to eliminating deforestation in their supply chains

“Are Brazilians eating the Cerrado?”, 21st November 2018

Soy is one of Brazil’s most important and profitable agricultural commodities, used both as a protein feed and as an energy crop. The soy industry generates income and jobs, contributing to the country’s economic growth, but soy production is also associated with negative social and environmental impacts. More than half of Brazilian soy is grown in the Cerrado, where soy expanded by 9.5 million hectares between 2000 and 2017. Almost one third of this came from native vegetation clearance, primarily in the region known as Matopiba...While attention has been given to the role of global demand in driving the expansion of Brazilian soy and the related deforestation, there has been less focus on the Brazilian domestic soy market. Nearly 40 percent of the soy produced in Brazil is crushed domestically mainly for animal feed and for biodiesel. Some of the products are then exported…The top seven companies (Bunge, Cargill, ADM, Granol, Caramuru, Comigo, and IMCOPA) account for 50% of all the soy crushing capacity in Brazil. Only five companies…have zero deforestation commitments…Nearly 50% of the soy crushing capacity in the Cerrado is owned by companies without any commitments to eliminate deforestation from all their supply chains…