"Soy grown illegally on Brazil's tribal lands finds its way to global markets", 05 September 2024

...Farm cooperatives in Brazil that supply some of the world's biggest multinational agricultural firms are buying soybeans grown illegally on Indigenous reservations in the country, according to tribal leaders and court records, despite the companies' public pledges to respect the land rights and resources of Indigenous peoples...

...[A]lmost all of the harvest is sold to farming co-operatives including Cotrijal Cooperativa Agropecuaria e Industrial (Cotrijal) and Cooperativa Triticola Sarandi (Cotrisal)...Reuters spoke to four Indigenous leaders, including the chiefs of the Serrinha and Nonoai reservations, two of the most involved in soy cultivation in the north of Rio Grande do Sul state, who said the commercial crops raised on their lands were sold to Cotrisal and other farming co-operatives. Three more Indigenous community members in Rio Grande do Sul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Reuters Cotrisal was a major buyer of soy raised by non-Indigenous farmers on leased tribal land...

When asked about possible sourcing of soy grown illegally on Indigenous land, Cotrisal's Debona said that it is impossible to trace the origin of 100% of its grain purchases...

ADM made no mention of Indigenous rights or land disputes in its most recent corporate sustainability report last year....In an email to Reuters, ADM said it had investigated the news agency's findings and found no evidence that the soy it purchased had been raised on lands leased on the Nonoai and Serrinha reservations...

However, buying from large farmer cooperatives in southern Brazil can obscure the origin of grains, according to six lawsuits filed between 2008 and 2022 by federal prosecutors on behalf of the tribes. At least two of the cases are ongoing. Bunge, Cargill, COFCO and Louis Dreyfus did not respond to requests for comment and referred questions to the national soy industry group Abiove."Cotrijal and Cotrisal declared to us they don't buy grains produced on the reservations of Nonoai and Serrinha," Abiove said in an email. Abiove said its members are pushing the cooperatives to ensure their supply chains conform with laws and contractual obligations against buying grains from protected territories...Abiove did not respond to Reuters' questions on whether its members ever turned down a purchase from Cotrisal or Cotrijal, and did not provide further evidence of its efforts to remove grain from indigenous lands from its supply chain...