Sea change for soy champion Brazil as it wrestles with EUDR compliance

Earlier this year, commodity-trading giant Cargill exported a shipment of soy from Brazil to Europe, aiming to test whether it would comply with the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR. It found that although the shipment met several of the EUDR’s requirements, it still faced several challenges to reach full compliance. The EUDR, once it comes into effect at the end of 2025 (delayed from this year), will require suppliers to prove that their products exported to the EU aren’t sourced from illegally deforested areas. It’s meant to address increasing claims of products imported into the EU being linked to illegal deforestation, including in the Amazon Rainforest, and will target products containing one of seven commodities: soy, cattle, rubber, palm oil, coffee, cocoa and timber. A report on Cargill’s dry run was released in October, authored by Brazil-based strategy consultancy Olab, specialized in food systems, forests and land use, and the government of the Netherlands. It analyzes the shipment exported to Europe in July, accompanied by the mandatory documents to demonstrate EUDR compliance, and focuses on the lessons arising from the challenges to meet the law’s requirements. The dry run resulted from a partnership of the Dutch Embassy in Brazil, Dutch food safety regulator NVWA, Olab and Cargill. Olab reviewed the documentation and presented the results to the NVWA responsible for receiving the shipment in the Netherlands on two separate occasions, according to the report. A harvester harvesting soy in Brazil. Image by charlesricardo via Pixabay (Public…This article was originally published on Mongabay