By Entorno and AFP | 2025-08-27

A Brazilian court has reinstated a pact between commodities traders not to buy soybeans grown in deforested areas of the Amazon, a week after it was struck out as anticompetitive.

A federal judge overturned the decision by Brazil's competition regulator, Cade, to scrap the two-decade-old pact credited with slowing deforestation.

Cade had ruled that the 2006 deal, known as the soy moratorium, damaged competition and harmed oilseed exports.

The August 25 court ruling said that the decision was "disproportionate and premature" and failed to take account of environmental assessments.

Greenpeace Brazil welcomed the judge's decision, saying that "suspending the moratorium carried the risk of encouraging further deforestation."

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of soybeans, with international sales of 96.8 million tons between January and November 2024, according to the state-owned National Supply Company.

The soy moratorium is enforced by representatives of the industry and 30 major exporters, chiefly due to pressure from the European Union to act against Amazon deforestation.

They pledge not to trade soybeans from land deforested since 2008.

Cade's ruling had caused an outcry from environmental and climate campaigners.

The competition regulator had given traders 10 days to withdraw from the pact or face heavy fines.

Brazil's powerful agribusiness lobby, which has considerable backing in Congress, has been pushing hard for the moratorium to be removed so that producers can grow soybeans deeper in the forest.

According to a report on the pact, soybean cultivation in the Amazon grew 344% between 2009 and 2022, while deforestation decreased 69% in the areas monitored by the agreement.

Cofco's soybean purchases

An investigation by the Rainforest Investigations Network and Repórter Brasil revealed in January 2023 that China's state-owned food giant Cofco used a $2.3 billion "green loan" to tout its commitment to sustainability while buying soybeans from deforested farms in Brazil.

Cofco secured the loan in 2019, pledging to trace its supply chains and combat forest loss, but continued sourcing grain from suppliers operating on recently cleared land.

Reporters traced Cofco's 2021 purchases in Mato Grosso to farms deforested after 2008, violating the Soy Moratorium, a landmark deal barring soy grown on cleared Amazon land.

Cofco made those purchases through Nutrade, a subsidiary of Syngenta, which allowed it to technically meet the loan's conditions while undermining its environmental promises.

The probe also exposed links to Uggeri Agropecuária, a supplier in the Cerrado. Despite state sanctions on some of its fields for illegal clearing, Uggeri kept farming the embargoed areas and continued shipping soybeans to Cofco through Nutrade.

Records show contracts and deliveries covering more than 1,000 tons of grain while environmental violations remained unresolved.

The findings cast doubt on China's claims of green leadership abroad and reveal glaring holes in corporate oversight of global food supply chains. By exploiting loopholes and weak monitoring, Cofco not only broke its own pledges but also helped fuel destruction in two of Brazil's most threatened biomes.