Retailers face fresh call to axe ties with illegal Brazilian farms

Several UK supermarkets are facing fresh calls to sever ties with meat suppliers in Brazil facing prosecution for their alleged involvement in illegal deforestation.

Following the release earlier this month of a Greenpeace investigation linking a raft of global firms to meat and leather originating from illegal farms in the Amazon, Brazilian prosecutors have confirmed they are taking legal action against more than 20 farms and cattle companies alleged to be involved in illegal deforestation.

Officials said they were seeking up to $1bn in compensation from the firms involved, and also issued official warnings to more than 60 companies judged to be buying products from illegal farms.

The companies named in the law suit include meat processing firm Bertin, which supplies beef to Tesco and Princes Food, while a warning was issued to JBS, which has supply contracts in place with Asda, Princes Food and M&S.

Greenpeace spokesman James Turner said it was highly unlikely that the UK supermarkets would become embroiled in the legal action, but he added that the suit would increase pressure on them to cancel contracts with those suppliers facing prosecution.

"The supermarkets have said they have received assurances that their products do not come from illegal farms, but the legal action should make them think again about whether they take those assurances at face value," he said.

A spokesman for Tesco said that as well as receiving written assurances from those suppliers named in the Greenpeace report that their beef products do not originate in the Amazon area, the company also has an ongoing independent auditing programme designed to check suppliers' claims.

"If any supplier is found not to comply with the law or our policies, which prohibit the sourcing of products from the Amazon area, we will not hesitate to delist them," he said, adding that those products supplied to Tesco by Bertin were not from regions near the Amazon.

M&S said it had also received assurances from its suppliers that its products did not come from the Amazon region, while Asda said it had sent auditors to the country to check on its supply chain.

But Turner said that in addition to ensuring that products do not come directly from illegal farms, UK firms should also sever links with any company found to be involved in deforestation, even if products from illegal farms are not shipped to the UK.

In related news, the World Bank announced it has cancelled its $90m loan to Bertin as a result of the cattle company's activities in the Amazon. The final $30m tranche of the loan will now not be delivered and the bank is expected to demand earlier repayment of the rest of the loan.

"It is good news that the World Bank is withdrawing these funds, yet scandalous that it was feeding a company that causes Amazon deforestation and climate change in the first place," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Brazil's Amazon campaign director. "For a bank that portrays itself as the 'knowledge bank', this was a very ill-conceived and thoroughly destructive use of its resources. It must now guarantee that it will not invest in such damaging projects in the future."