JBS company, the world’s biggest meat-packing plant, broke international agreements and continues purchasing cattle from farms involved in the illegal deforestation of the Amazon Forest in Pará state. That is what shows an investigation released at the end of June by Global Witness, an international NGO that inspects the social and environmental impacts of big companies around the world.
The report exposes the existence of a production chain of companies that profit greatly from the illegal exploitation of land, in addition to human rights violations. The Seronni “dynasty” is allegedly among them. They are a family of farmers from Pará state and one of JBS’s regular suppliers. According to Global Witness, the Seronni family is accused of crimes such as the use of slave labor, illegal deforestation, land grabbing, and cattle laundry.
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“Sergio Luiz Xavier Seronni, the boss of the Seronni family, has a long and confusing history of illegal deforestation, human rights abuses, and the subjection of workers to conditions analogous to slavery. These activities provide him with a luxurious life. The report cites that Seronni has a Cessna aircraft and a Piper 19 aircraft, as well as 10 companies with combined market price of almost US$ 50 million.
In a statement, JBS said the company has a “zero-tolerance policy on illegal deforestation, land grabbing, slave labor or human rights violations”. You can read more about the company’s statement at the end of this news story. Brasil de Fato did not succeed in contacting any representative of the Seronni family. We remain open to hearing from them.
International banks with a green agenda are financing JBS
Also, the NGO noted that the illegalities are not preventing international banks and asset managers from investing billions in JBS activities. The list of financiers includes banking institutions that have announced public commitments to curb deforestation. Among them, there are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, JP Morgan, Santander, and BlackRock.
“Although the governments of the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the US have declared they are working on laws to guarantee that these companies do not import commodities linked to deforestation, they are not considering the financial sector”, says Chris Moye, the report’s author and head of Forest Research at Global Witness.
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“We concluded that it is essential to have stronger regulation of this sector so that to reduce its contribution to deforestation, especially considering the repeated failures of their voluntary non-deforestation initiatives”, adds Moye.
JBS has 144 irregular suppliers, according to Global Witness
Global Witness points out that JBS is the main buyer of cattle raised in the Amazon Rainforest. In that biome, 70% of all the deforested area is currently occupied by cattle raising activities. The NGO revealed in 2020 that 3,027 of the Brazilian company's suppliers were using illegal deforestation practices.
JBS had already signed legal agreements of non-deforestation with Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry. In 2021, the company made a joint public statement to combat the environmental devastation caused by its suppliers. The commitment was made at COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference.
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“Now, our investigation concluded that, despite these agreements, JBS continued buying from 144 of these same Pará state farms exposed in our previous report, once again not complying with the commitments made with [Brazil’s] Public Ministry”, states a member of Global Witness.
On the other hand, JBS attests that the purchases made from these farms were verified and in accordance with “established regulations”.
“Also contrary to its obligations, JBS did not monitor other 470 farms involved in the company’s supply chain, called indirect suppliers. In total, these farms has illegally deforested about 40,000 soccer fields of the Amazon Rainforest”, said Moye
Luxury cars and deforestation
According to Global Witness, the destruction of Amazon drives the profits of the world’s auto industry. Leather seats in luxury cars, status symbols for many consumers, are part of the production chain that begins with illegal deforestation.
One of the subjects of Global Witness investigations is the Mastrotto Group, from Italy, one of the most prestigious leather manufacturers in the world. The company had allegedly imported leather from irregular JBS slaughterhouses that receive cattle raised in illegally deforested areas.
Mastrotto Group “has an annual turnover of 400 million euros and supplies to Volkswagen Group, which owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Skoda, Seat, and Bugatti”, said the NGO.
“Mastrotto also reported Toyota as one of its other customers from the auto sector. Ikea also appears as one of Mastrotto’s regular clients. The Italian company has subsidiaries that purchase leather in Brazil”, Global Witness concluded.
The other side
JBS replied that the company blocks suppliers when informed about their illegal practices, and added that 15,000 producers are out of the productive chain due to not meeting the company’s socio-environmental criteria.
“Regarding the 144 JBS suppliers mentioned in the survey, the Company analyzed all purchases made and verified that they were following the established regulations. In the case of Mr. Seronni, he and his family members were blocked as soon as the complaints of illegal practices were reported to JBS”, the company said.
“Furthermore, based on the Access to Information Law, we requested access to the GTAs [Portuguese acronym for Animal Transit Guides] related to these producers, which would give us an overview of the transactions carried out. However, we have yet to hear back, despite the legal deadline having already expired”, concluded the company.
Mastrotto Group did not respond Brasil de Fato’s questions. In case of a response, the story will be updated.
Edited by: Thalita Pires e Flávia Chacon
