{"id":50379742,"date":"2023-09-19T16:39:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogochino.net\/?p=379742"},"modified":"2024-04-11T16:47:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T16:47:38","slug":"379742-opinion-green-passport-can-promote-sustainable-china-brazil-beef-trade","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/379742-opinion-green-passport-can-promote-sustainable-china-brazil-beef-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: \u2018Green passports\u2019 can promote sustainable China-Brazil beef trade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year was something of a milestone for bilateral, multi-level diplomacy on sustainable trade between Brazil and China, and the start of a new chapter in their dialogue on agriculture\u2019s links with biodiversity conservation and climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year saw the Global Environmental Institute (GEI), a Chinese civil society organisation with which I work, launch partnerships with several Brazilian public entities to facilitate on-the-ground, cross-border initiatives that nurture good governance and sustainable trade practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2022, GEI signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate on sustainability initiatives<\/a> with parties from Mato Grosso, the west-central Brazilian state that is the country\u2019s leading producer of both beef and soy. An agreement was also signed<\/a> with the Legal Amazon Consortium, which brings together nine Amazonian state governments on sustainable development initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concrete actions are now being explored following these agreements. These include the \u2018green passport<\/a>\u2019 protocol for beef products, under which a pilot traceability system is being designed, which aims to provide sustainability information on Brazilian beef products to consumers in China using barcodes on food packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through carrying out technical research, fieldwork, policy analysis and pilot design, there are four aims for this partnership, which brings GEI together with the state government and the Mato Grosso Meat Institute (IMAC), a beef-focused research and technology institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First, the partnership aims to guide the socio-environmental responsibilities of business stakeholders; second, to help Brazilian entities understand the market in China for sustainably produced quality beef; third, to evaluate the feasibility of distributing such products in China, and potential market-based and financial mechanisms to promote them; and finally, to analyse the establishment of traceability schemes in administrative, regulatory and institutional terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traceability is a tool that all actors along a supply chain can champion, but also a process that requires transparency, information disclosure, trust-building and sustainable practices. Done well, it can bring benefits throughout the chain, encouraging openness and adding value that can position products at a premium price. This can also help to promote traceability for sustainability as a broader change within the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is challenging to construct cross-border traceability systems as a tool to address deforestation linked to beef production. Firstly, it is technically tricky to track the movement of animals in Brazil, given the notoriously complex and indirect supply landscape<\/a>, in which cattle are regularly traded among ranches at different stages of their growth. It is also time-consuming to connect and standardise traceability systems for international trade, in order to establish authoritative, harmonised systems that are not one-size-fits-all \u2013 and which are ultimately business-friendly to small and medium-sized enterprises in both China and Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, given the potential benefits of meeting this challenge, the partnership has set a path to facilitate the development of strong public policy in the state of Mato Grosso, and to foster a niche market for traceable, higher-quality meat products in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green passport: traceability and public policy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An important sustainability initiative arising from the new partnerships is the development of Mato Grosso\u2019s \u2018green passport\u2019 for beef products, launched in 2022. As well as planning the workings of such a labelling system, a key challenge is to bring about innovation that can help verify and spread the use of socio-environmental traceability standards across the state\u2019s livestock sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative plans, firstly, to supervise and empower the sector, helping businesses to engage with and access traceability schemes, so that verifiably socially and environmentally benign beef can attain the green passport label by 2026. Secondly, it aims to classify carcasses and designate those deemed to be of \u2018superior\u2019 quality. It is thus a means for both realising the state\u2019s responsibilities of environmental governance, and for inspecting food quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A new \u2018green passport\u2019 aims to increase traceability across the beef supply chain in Mato Grosso. If producers and slaughterhouses fail to meet the new standards by 2026, they could face restrictions. (Image: Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is an ambitious initiative, and potentially a breakthrough, as the state government will target both direct and indirect cattle ranchers, and aims for it to ultimately be a state-wide programme involving all producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2026, if producers and slaughterhouses\u2019 activities and purchases fail to meet green passport standards \u2013 for example, in being linked to deforestation through their suppliers \u2013 they will face restrictions on their future transactions. Cattle purchases will be limited to as low as 20% relative to their last transaction (i.e. two cows versus ten), until they satisfy the programme\u2019s socio-environmental criteria. In this way, it is hoped that verification of their transaction records can help to influence and improve the activities of indirect suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The green passport protocol is being jointly devised by two of the MoU partners \u2013 the state government of Mato Grosso and IMAC \u2013 together with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). Other public entities have since joined, including the Federal Public Ministry of Mato Grosso, and the state secretariats of the Environment, and of Economic Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry groups such as Mato Grosso meatpackers union Sindifrigo-MT, and breeders\u2019 association Acrimat, have also entered the partnership, as well as business stakeholders, including meat processing giants JBS and Marfrig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protocol is built on a solid foundation of national and sub-national regulatory frameworks, incorporating, among others: the Forest Code, a law requiring Amazon landowners to maintain a proportion of their land as forest; the Protocol for the Monitoring of Cattle Suppliers in the Amazon <\/em>(BeefonTrack<\/a>), which standardises the monitoring of animal origin and auditing in a number of slaughterhouses; IMAC\u2019s Reinsertion and Monitoring Program<\/a>, a platform for monitoring environmental remediation on farms that have engaged in illegal deforestation; and the Mato Grosso state law<\/a> that established IMAC and outlined its responsibility to promote sustainability in the beef sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This fusion of regulations helps to bridge federal and regional initiatives, fostering positive synergies in a strategic and cost-effective way. Accordingly, the protocol takes into account contemporary Brazil\u2019s agricultural development and plans, and evaluates the environmental assets held by individual farms, through assessing their recovery of degraded pastures and\/or irregularly deforested areas while enhancing productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, taking advantage of the BeefonTrack monitoring system could help to spread and hopefully normalise the practice of tracking illegal deforestation among producers. This high degree of policy compatibility means that cattle producers may bear lower costs to adapt to newer and evolving policies. It also increases the opportunity to extend this sort of \u201cverify-to-qualify\u201d programme beyond Mato Grosso to a nationwide verification system \u2013 and thus enables the possibility of re-positioning the identity of Brazilian beef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protocol is also a timely initiative to prepare producers to smoothly connect with certain new regulations in consumption markets, such as the European Union\u2019s deforestation law<\/a>, which aims to prevent commodities grown on deforested land from entering the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the green passport, the Mato Grosso state government is also developing legally binding instruments for implementing verification of sustainability standards, designing financial mechanisms such as tax incentives, and developing monitoring and data platforms to identify responsible producers, to enhance their credibility and visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n