July 26, 2006

 

Brazilian soy industry to stop buying Amazon soy for 2 years

 

 

Brazilian soy crushers and exporters would stop buying soy grown in newly deforested land in the Amazon basin for 2 years, industry groups said on Monday (Jul 24), in a move to placate environmental groups calling for the protection of the world's largest rain forest.

 

The 2-year moratorium would apply to soybeans planted as of October 2006 in newly deforested areas of the Amazon.

 

The move, led by the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Producers (Abiove) and the National Grains Exporters' Association, would reconcile environmental conservation with economic development, the groups said in a joint statement.

 

Environmental and consumer groups have long said the rapid expansion of Brazil's soy plantings was destroying the Amazon. Brazil became the world's second-largest soy producer, behind the US in a relatively short span of time.

 

Brazil's soy industry had previously denied its activities were destroying the Amazon, shifting the blame instead to independent loggers and grazers.

 

However, as consumers, especially in Europe, became more aware of environmental issues, they have begun demanding proof of origin in their shipments.

 

In a move to clean up their act, Brazilian soy industry leaders said it was time to take action to prevent buyers from turning to rival producers like Argentina and the US.

 

The market is demanding adjustments and soy producers to would have to adopt practices in line with this new demand, Abiove president Carlo Lovatelli said.

 

Brazilian soy industry leaders and multinationals like Archer Daniels Midland Co., Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus would work with the government and non-governmental organisations to come up with strategies to develop the Amazon while preserving the rain forest.

 

The groups also pledged not to buy soybeans from plantations that use slave labour, a practice that is still common in some parts of Brazil.

 

Greenpeace, which led efforts to protect the Amazon from soy producers, hailed the move as an "important step" in the struggle to protect the Amazon.

 

Greenpeace estimates that more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of Amazon rainforest have been felled in recent years to plant soybeans. However, Brazil's soy industry insists that most of the soybean plantations in the Amazon were planted legally.