Brazil's soy industry will sign an agreement Tuesday (June 17, 2008) to extend an industry-wide ban on the purchase of soy from deforested areas in the Amazon, an official at the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association (Abiove) confirmed.

An extension of one year will be signed tomorrow and more participants will be included in the soy moratorium, the official told Dow Jones Newswires.

A press conference in Brazil Tuesday will include environment minister Carlos Minc, Abiove president Carlo Lovatelli and Greenpeace Brazil director, Paulo Adario.

In July 2006, Abiove together with the National Grain Exporters Association (ANEC) urged groups such as Greenpeace International to prohibit purchases of soy from newly deforested fields in the Amazon region.

The decision was made shortly after Greenpeace, which is part of the Soy Moratorium Working Group (GTS) convinced McDonald's Corp. (MCD) in Europe to stop purchasing chicken from companies that use soymeal animal feed made from soy grown in the Amazon.

Companies such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Commodities are part of the moratorium group.

In April, the first field survey since the moratorium began covered 193 deforested areas within Mato Grosso and the states of Para and Rondonia.

Adario said that if the moratorium would not be continued, farmers would grow more soy in the Amazon.

There are only a handful of big soy buyers, so it is easier to monitor where the soy comes from and who buys it, said Conservation International's Jose Maria Cardoso Da Silva.