France has named agricultural traders Bunge and Cargill as leading importers of soybeans from areas threatened by deforestation, a major contributor to global warming.
The companies were identified when the French government tried to clean up the country’s agricultural supply chains with the launch of an online database that tracks soybean exports from Brazil to France.
The database shows that in 2018 about a quarter of Brazilian soybean exports to France came from areas affected by deforestation.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of the legume, which is mainly used as fodder and oil. Its production has been one of the causes of deforestation in the tropical rainforest for several decades.
The savannahs of the Amazon and Brazil are critical buffers against climate change and act as huge carbon sinks. In the year through July, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon was the highest in 15 years, according to official Brazilian data.
The online database, launched by the French Ministry of Ecological Transformation with the help of the Supply Chain Transparency Group Trase and the environmental NGO Canopee, highlights the role of the world’s largest agricultural traders in handling raw materials that may be linked to deforestation.
It found that Bunge accounted for 70 percent of the loads, with soybeans sourced from areas at high risk of deforestation, while Cargill accounted for almost 10 percent.
Bunge said it is determined to achieve deforestation-free supply chains by 2025 and has already removed some farmers associated with deforested land from its supply chain.
Cargill said the platform’s data does not reflect French imports, adding that it has committed to clearing deforestation in no time, but there is no single solution to the problem.
The French government announced that traders and other companies have been asked to share their data in order to improve the quality of the analysis.
Nico Muzi, of the Mighty Earth environmental campaign, said traders are dictating the terms of the global soy market and can make significant changes if they feel pressured.
411,000 tonnes of 1.57 million soybeans or products made from them that were exported from Brazil to France in 2018 were associated with a high risk of deforestation, according to the French website.
According to the Ministry of Ecological Change, France imports around 3 million tons of soybean meal, or around 17 percent of the EU’s total, per year. “Monitoring the flow of these imports that pose a risk to forests. . . will help with supply chain risk, “it said.
The online database was released shortly after a global commitment to stop the destruction of the world’s forests at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.
The EU has also released a draft regulation that would force companies to prove that products they sold in the bloc did not contribute to legal or illegal deforestation or forest degradation.
However, the figures on the French website do not show that the soybeans were grown in deforested areas, the Environment Ministry said, adding it will contact traders about the risk of deforestation in their supply chains.
French supermarket group Carrefour, a member of the government working group that helped develop the platform, said it will use the data to remove deforestation-related soy feed from its supply chains by 2025.
Together with other leading French retailers, the group signed a soy manifesto last year to fight the deforestation and destruction of savannahs. UK retailers and food companies followed suit and signed a similar manifesto in November.
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