By Ana Mano
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Nearly 17% of the cattle bought by JBS SA in Brazil’s Para state in the Amazon rainforest allegedly came from ranches with “irregularities” such as illegal deforestation, according to an audit by federal prosecutors released on Thursday.
The audit, which examined cattle purchases between July 2019 and June 2020, said that the world’s largest meatpacker allegedly bought some 93,734 head from irregular ranchers.
Overall, the audit found 136,172 irregular cattle purchases by JBS and other unlisted meatpackers that operate in the region.
JBS said in a statement the purchases were made more than 2 years ago when it had imprecise criteria for ranchers, adding the issue had subsequently been fixed.
According to the audit, the world’s largest meatpacker allegedly bought some 93,734 head from irregular ranchers. JBS was responsible for nearly 69% of the 136,172 irregular cattle purchases by more than 15 companies operating in the region.
The audit results have fed growing concerns that JBS could be contributing to destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
In the previous auditing cycle covering the period between January 2018 and June 2019, JBS allegedly bought about 301,000 head of cattle from irregular ranchers, federal prosecutors said.
Cattle ranching along with clearing land to sell timber or grow crops are driving deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
A number of meatpackers signed commitments with prosecutors in 2013, agreeing not to buy cattle from ranches that were cleared illegally since 2008, or have been blacklisted for environmental crimes.
JBS and more than a dozen other major agriculture firms have also pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2025, including destruction linked to indirect suppliers that sell to middlemen who then sell to meatpackers.
The audit found no cattle purchase irregularities linked to Minerva, a JBS rival and the only other listed company scrutinized.
(Reporting by Ana Mano, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
