Major UK supermarkets have warned the decision of international soy traders to withdraw from the Amazon Soy Moratorium earlier this month could lead them to cut ties with the businesses.
Brazilian soy trade association Abiove confirmed it would quit the voluntary pact – which has restricted the sale of soybeans grown in deforested areas of the Amazon biome since 2008 – at the start of January.
Abiove said companies would now be individually responsible for meeting conservation commitments after its withdrawal, alongside its key soy trading members Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Louis Dreyfus and Cofco.
The move provoked anger from environmental campaigners and has now triggered the strongest response yet from supermarkets. In an open letter sent yesterday, the Retail Soy Group told traders that leading European retailers were “extremely disappointed” by the abandonment of the pact.
The group, which counts Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, M&S, Co-op and Ocado among its membership, said stepping back from the ASM “risks weakening existing deterrents to deforestation” and undermined future efforts to develop collaborative protection agreements.
The letter added that withdrawing from the moratorium would also “threaten efforts to secure the sustainability of your investments in Brazilian soy production in the face of accelerated climate change”.
Retailers within the group “expect your business to continue to supply soy from the biome free from deforestation”, the group stressed.
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“Producers respond to clear and stable buyer requirements, and consistent protections are critical to enhancing the resiliency of Brazilian soy production, achieving our mutual climate change and deforestation commitments, and meeting downstream and investor expectations for action,” it added.
And while the individual business commitments of these business were “now uncertain”, the group’s own commitments remained “clear” with RSG members pledging to “continue to exclude any soy from the Amazon biome that has been produced on land deforested after the 2008 cut-off date”.
In light of the past months’ developments, the group has given the traders a 16 February deadline to confirm whether they will independently rejoin the ASM.
Assurances have also been demanded around whether their existing climate and deforestation commitments remain unchanged, and whether the soy traders will continue to respect the ASM’s 2008 cut-off date.
Traders have additionally been asked for detail on their procurement controls “to ensure soy is legally deforestation-free”, alongside a commitment to the “independent assurance of your monitoring, reporting and verification system”.
The RSG said “prompt responses” were required ahead of its February deadline, and in a thinly-veiled threat, said the information was required “so we may separately assess whether your business complies with our individual sourcing requirements and determine future sourcing decisions”.
All named soy traders have been approached for comment.
The Retail Soy Group’s intervention comes as the British Retail Consortium this month said it too was “disappointed” at the abandonment of the pact. The ASM was “a crucial mechanism to combatting deforestation in the Amazon”, said BRC sustainability policy advisor Sophie De Salis.
“Retailers remain committed to collaborating with their suppliers to tackle deforestation and ensure greater uptake of certified sustainable products in their supply chains, as well as calling for legislative measures globally to enforce action.”
Soy traders “must take heed of how their retail customers in Europe are reacting to their abandonment of the ASM, which leading supermarkets recognise is a key mechanism to tackle Amazon deforestation”, urged Boris Patentreger, senior director at MGO Mighty Earth.
“Without the ASM, soy expansion would increasingly replace already-deforested pasture, displacing cattle deeper into the Amazon, triggering more indirect deforestation that will push the biome closer to collapse.”
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