"Investigation: Hong Kong’s role in illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil" 31 March 2024

Cattle farming is “the number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country,”...Among those profiting from the degradation of the Amazon is rancher Bruno Heller, whose family owns farms that have been fined US$5 million for illegal deforestation, and who has been accused by Brazilian federal police of clearing 6,500 hectares of forest...

Through a process known as “cattle laundering,” where cows raised at illicit locations are transported to those with a clean record, Repórter Brasil tracked cattle from Heller’s family farms to a slaughterhouse, 163 Beef Industria & Comercio De Carnes Ltda, and traced beef products from that slaughterhouse to Hong Kong.

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In 2022, Hong Kong imported US$253.65 million worth of frozen, edible beef offal and animal guts, bladders and stomachs from Brazil – or 48 per cent of the country’s exports of those products...

According to Repórter Brasil’s investigation, at least four firms registered in the city bought bovine offal such as aorta, omasum and honeycomb from 163 Beef several times between 2022 and 2023. They include Galaila International Company Limited, Harvest Charm Limited, Loyalty Union Asia Limited, and Uni Shining International Trading Co., Limited...

When HKFP visited the companies’ offices late last November, little could be gleaned about their operations...Requests for comment sent via registered mail and, where possible, emails to all four companies have gone unanswered...

Not all of the Brazilian beef products imported by Hong Kong are destined to stay in the city...US$342 million worth of Brazilian bovine offal was re-exported from Hong Kong – 50.3 per cent of which went to Vietnam, 29.9 per cent to Taiwan and 15.4 per cent to South Korea...Guyot, of Brazilian NGO Imaflora, believes that some of the Brazilian bovine offal that enters Hong Kong has another final destination – mainland China....