By Jake Spring and Anthony Deutsch

SAO PAULO/AMSTERDAM – Six European supermarket chains are owned by Ahold Delhaize, a Dutch company. Carrefour (PA) subsidiary said Wednesday it would cease selling Brazil beef products. This was due to their links with the destruction of Amazon (NASDAQ) rainforest.

There were many pledges, from Lidl Netherlands (supermarket chain) pledging to discontinue all South American beef sales starting in 2022 to specific decisions like ceasing the sale of beef jerky or corned meat.

The largest global meatpacker is the source of many of the affected products. JBS SA (OTC:).

This is in response to Reporter Brasil, a Brazilian publication that investigated claims JBS inadvertently sourced cows illegally deforested regions. It was referred to as “cattle laundering.”

It happens when illegally cleared cattle are bought by a legal farm and then sold to a slaughterhouse to conceal their origin.

JBS said to Reuters that the company has zero tolerance for illegal forest destruction and has stopped more than 14,000 suppliers from violating its policies. JBS said that it is challenging to monitor indirect suppliers (those who sell before the slaughterhouse), but will implement a system in 2025.

Brazilian meatpacker claimed that Reporter Brasil only identified five of 77,000 JBS suppliers, and that these suppliers conformed to the company’s requirements at time of purchase.

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has seen a surge in deforestation since Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing president, took office in 2019. He also rolled back environmental protections. According to him, he plans on increasing farming and mining in order to alleviate poverty.

In 2021, the deforestation reached a fifteen-year peak with an area that was larger than Connecticut in the United States.

The majority of denuded land can be used to raise cattle.

Ahold Delhaize’s Dutch subsidiary Albert Heijn will, among other things, cease sourcing Brazilian beef entirely.

Reuters was told by an Albert Heijn spokesperson that they currently only sell a few pieces of Brazilian-sourced corned beef or beef jerky each week.

Auchan France also plans to remove JBS-related beef jerky products from its shelves. Delhaize and Carrefour Belgium won’t be selling Jack Link brand beefjerky.

Jack Link’s and JBS have formed a joint venture to produce jerky. Jack Link did not reply to my request for comment.

J Sainsbury (OTC) Plc’s Sainsbury’s UK has decided to stop buying its brand of corned beef in Brazil. However, it stated that 95% of the beef comes from Britain and Ireland.