The Soy Moratorium consists of an agreement signed between companies and environmental organisations that prohibits the purchase of soy produced in any area of the Amazon deforested after July 2008. It is considered one of the main instruments for forest preservation, as it contributed to a 69% reduction in native forest clearance by 2022.

According to Repórter Brasil, “a change announced in its most recent sustainability report, published in December, shows that Cargill is altering the way it tracks the origin of the soy it trades. In the previous year, the company had followed the 2008 cut-off date established by the moratorium and estimated that 94% of its grains were produced in areas free from new deforestation. In the latest report, however, the company adopted 2020 as the reference year. With the new benchmark, the percentage of soy produced in areas free from new deforestation rose to 99.3%, according to Cargill. In practice, the change undermines the pact’s main rule and loosens the company’s voluntary monitoring mechanisms, opening the door to the purchase of grains grown on land deforested after 2008.”

For the journalistic organisation, the new reference date is not a coincidence: “It corresponds to the new limit established by the European anti-deforestation law (EUDR, the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products), which bars the entry into the European market of products such as soy, beef and timber originating from areas deforested — legally or illegally — after December 2020.”

When questioned by Repórter Brasil, Cargill stated that, as this is a “sector-wide issue”, the body responsible for responding to the questions would be Abiove (the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industry Association).

We invited Cargill and Abiove to comment on the allegations, and their responses are available.