Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA has notified 12 slaughterhouses, including two operated by JBS SA, of an inspection for their alleged involvement in a scheme to purchase cattle from illegally deforested lands in the Amazon, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Last week, Ibama announced it was investigating 12 plants for such violations, though it did not identify the companies.
JBS stated that it did not have access to the inspection report and needs to review the findings. The meatpacking plants also include Frigol and Mercurio, according to the document.
Frigol responded that it was a mistake by IBAMA and that he did not purchase cattle from the ranch identified as deforested.
Mercurio president Lincoln Bueno told Reuters that an outside company monitors the origin of the animals and that they do not work with properties with environmental or labor irregularities.
IBAMA indicated that the investigated plants were allegedly “acquiring suspicious livestock, triangulated with ‘clean’ farms, to disguise their illegal origin”.
The agency added that it has already fined six meatpacking plants-whose names were not revealed-for the direct purchase of 8,172 head of cattle in “seized areas”, with penalties totaling R$4 million (US$740,000).
