Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the United States, announced on May 7, 2019 that it will adopt a no-deforestation policy. Kroger’s move is the result of years of investor engagement and the company lagging behind its peers in implementing policies to sell deforestation-free products. Green Century Capital Management filed a shareholder resolution in January …
Similar to physical actors along commodity supply chains, investors are facing greater pressure to limit links to deforestation, a trend that could expose them to reputation risks. A recent report from Amazon Watch (for which CRR partner Profundo provided research on the downstream supply chain) highlights this growing risk. It argues for reform among investors …
Many fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have publicly committed to a 2020 deadline to end deforestation in their supply chains. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that most FMCGs will not meet this deadline. NGO campaigns against individual FMCGs and benchmark studies that show the differences in implementation of zero-deforestation commitments indicate increasing reputation risks …
China’s meat industry is now facing major challenges with African swine fever poised to cut the country’s pig population by a third. The impact of this sharp decline will likely have widespread ramifications, including higher global meat prices and stronger Chinese imports from Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, where rising deforestation is being fueled by …
Casino Group is a French multi-banner food retailer, with a controlling share in Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) in Brazil. This report analyses GPA’s deforestation risk exposure based on beef samples collected through store visits. Chain Reaction Research (CRR) visited 50 GPA supermarkets in five Brazilian cities and inspected 500 randomly selected beef products. Data …
With more reliance on Brazilian beef, Chinese downstream companies in the meat industry are facing risks from supply associated with deforestation. Higher demand for Brazilian beef in China, where imports from Brazil have quadrupled since 2010, has been the major driver behind the rise in Brazil’s exports. Total exports of Brazilian beef increased by 2.6 …
The United States, the largest beef consumer in the world, is accelerating a process to reopen beef imports from Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter. U.S. President Donald Trump agreed at a meeting in Washington on March 19, 2019 with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro to take steps to resume beef trade between the two countries after …
The number of cattle slaughtered in Brazil reached 31.86 million heads in 2018, the highest level since 2014. The higher rate of slaughter increases the risk of even more cattle-driven deforestation occurring in Brazil. As Chain Reaction Research (CRR) highlighted in a report last September, the cattle industry is a major driver of deforestation in …
Cencosud, the fourth largest supermarket chain in Brazil, published a statement to affirm it will source beef from only slaughterhouses that are not linked to Amazon deforestation, indigenous lands, environmental reserves, or slave labor. The statement, however, lacks details regarding how and when the company will implement this policy. Cencosud has not clarified a strategy …
A group of U.S. Senators recently sent letters on February 4, 2019 to investors and asset managers urging them to take into account deforestation risks in their portfolios. The Senators, led by Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, asked the financial actors to commit to pressuring companies in agricultural supply chains that do not adequately address …
