"Brazilian Amazon ‘cattle laundering’ taints JBS & Frigol supply chains: Report", 13 June 2024

...A new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals how illegal cattle raised in the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory were laundered into the supply chains of two of Brazil’s largest beef companies, JBS and Frigol, between 2020 and early 2023...

The EIA report presents several case studies that demonstrate how illegal cattle were able to enter the supply chains of JBS and Frigol. In the first case, cattle were moved from inside Apyterewa without transportation permits, known as GTAs, to farms outside the Indigenous territory. The farmers then falsely declared the animals were raised on legal farms, therefore concealing the true origin of the cattle...

In other cases, the state phytosanitary agency (Adepará) issued GTAs for the movement of cattle raised illegally inside the Indigenous territory to farms outside. The EIA found that between 2020 and early 2023,  Adepará issued transportation permits for almost 12,000 cattle to be transferred from 58 illegal farms in Apyterewa to farms outside the territory...

Both JBS and Frigol have signed legally binding Terms of Adjusted Conduct (TACs) with federal prosecutors committing to not purchase cattle from farms that contain illegal deforestation or that overlap with protected areas or Indigenous territories, and they have also committed to monitor the suppliers of their direct suppliers by 2025...

“JBS has advocated for some time that the definitive solution to the environmental issue in Brazilian livestock lies in a mandatory national traceability program, capable of establishing a common set of socioenvironmental monitoring information for farms to expedite progress,” a company spokesperson told Mongabay.

Frigol did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment...