Brazilian Stores Commit to Forest-Friendly Beef

摘要

The Brazilian Supermarket Association (ABRAS) Dec. 7 signed a pact with the Environment Ministry pledging that its members would buy only beef that is environmentally certified as not having come from recently cut Amazon forests, Tiaraju Pires, the group's general director, told BNA Dec. 7. ABRAS plans to have auditors-among them SGS of Switzerland, one of the world's leading certification companies-inspect all slaughterhouses used by its members to determine if their beef can be ABRAS-certified. Forests may not have been cut after July 31, 2009, to qualify. Similar restrictions will apply to beef coming from illegally cut areas outside the Amazon. Association members include nearly all the country's supermarkets and represent up to 70 percent of the beef sold in Brazil, the rest being sold by butcher shops and restaurants.