According to a new study titled “The rotten apples of Brazil’s agribusiness,” more than a fifth of Brazil’s annual soybean exports to the European Union are potentially contaminated with crops grown on land from illegal deforestation. Only 2% of the farms are causing 62% of the deforestation.
Importers of Brazil’s agricultural commodities have long concerned that products contaminated with deforestation could be reaching their countries. EU leaders have openly criticised the Brazilian government, supporting demands for the boycott of Brazilian products in response to the forest fires which devastated the country in August 2019.
