Carrefour’s cold shoulder for South American beef sparks a backlash from Brazil

BRASILIA, Brazil — Supermarket giant Carrefour’s back for French farmers’ protests against a trade agreement between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur has sparked a powerful reaction in Brazil, including a refusal to supply beef to Carrefour stores in Brazil.

Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard announced in social media posts last week that the French corporation would stop buying beef from all Mercosur countries, which also include Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bompard wrote that he agrees with French producers’ arguments that Mercosur beef is an unfair competitor due to lower production costs resulting from fewer environmental and sanitary requirements.

The executive encouraged other retailers to pursue suit.

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture called Bompard’s shift protectionist, saying it was made “without any technical criteria.”

The selection also angered Brazil’s meatpackers. Though France makes up just a tiny sliver of Brazil’s beef exports, meatpackers worried that Carrefour’s selection would hurt its reputation in other markets.

Beef giants JBS and Marfrig halted supplies last Friday to Carrefour’s extensive supermarket chain in Brazil, including the food warehouse giant Atacadao. Both companies refused to comment on the boycott to The Associated Press, but Minister of Agriculture Carlos Fávaro confirmed it.

“We back the reaction of the meatpackers. If Brazil´s beef isn’t excellent enough for Carrefour’s shelves in France, it isn’t excellent enough for Carrefour’s shelves in Brazil either,” Faváro told Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Monday.

Carrefour throng in Brazil acknowledged the boycott in a statement, though it said there’s not yet a shortage of beef in stores. It said it has “esteem and confidence in the Brazilian agricultural sector, with which it maintains a solid connection and collaboration.”

“Unfortunately, the selection to suspend the meat supply has an impact on customers, especially those who depend on the corporation to supply their homes with standard and responsible products,” the statement said. “It is in constant exchange in search of solutions that will make it feasible to resume the supply of meat to its stores as quickly as feasible, respecting the commitments it has to its more than 130,000 Brazilian employees and millions of Brazilian customers countrywide.”

The backdrop for the dispute is the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which would boost agricultural imports to EU countries from South America. French farmers terror it will affect their livelihoods. An initial agreement was reached in 2019, but negotiations have faltered since then due to opposition that also includes some European governments.

Brazil’s agribusiness sector also fears that the pending European Union Deforestation Regulation will outlaw the sale of forest-derived products within the EU’s 27-country bloc if companies can’t prove their goods are not linked to deforestation. Its scope includes soy and cattle, Brazil’s top agricultural exports. Almost half of the country’s cattle is raised in the Amazon region, where 90% of deforested land since 1985 has turned into pasture, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit network. The date of its implementation remains doubtful.

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