{"id":50037731,"date":"2020-10-07T16:09:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=37731"},"modified":"2023-03-12T23:30:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T23:30:16","slug":"37731-the-murky-process-of-licensing-the-amazon-meatpackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/37731-the-murky-process-of-licensing-the-amazon-meatpackers\/","title":{"rendered":"The murky process of licensing the Amazon’s meatpackers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians and meatpackers in Brazil\u2019s Amazonian state of Par\u00e1 gathered for a celebration in September 2019, cheering the official announcement<\/a> that four<\/a> processing plants in the state had won approval to export to mainland China. Photos show delighted participants posing with boxes of meat products.<\/p>\n

“The ability to enter the Chinese market is something that meat processing plants in our state have been requesting since 2011,” said governor Helder Barbalho who had lobbied hard for the licences.<\/p>\n

Decades of growth in cattle ranching have meant Par\u00e1 is now the state with the largest herd nationwide. At 20.6 million<\/a> heads, it has 2.5 cattle for every human inhabitant<\/a>. At the same time, the region has also broken records for deforestation, sharpening the focus on its contribution to climate change.<\/p>\n

Rampant destruction<\/h2>\n

The Amazon region suffered a fire season in August 2019 that shocked the world. And the destruction has continued into 2020. Barbalho explained<\/a> the fires were “burning the forest to make pasture”. In the last twelve months, Par\u00e1 lost almost 3,000 square kilometres<\/a> of forest, an area almost the size of Beijing, becoming the state that has destroyed most rainforest in Brazil during this period.<\/p>\n

Environmental devastation was not mentioned in publicly disclosed documents about recent agreements between Brazil and China on beef, as political and economic pressures dominated the negotiations. The lengthy certification process for meat processing plants focuses almost exclusively on sanitary standards, as can be seen from the applications forms, hearings, and protocols analysed by Di\u00e1logo Chino <\/em>for this article.<\/p>\n

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14<\/p>\n

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\nof the 22 Brazilian meat plants approved to export to China since 2019 are in the Amazon
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Since 2019, China has approved<\/a> 22 new beef processing plants, 14 located in the Amazon region. The Amazon biome now is home to almost half of the Brazilian meat processing plants authorised to export to China<\/p>\n

Environmentalists are alarmed by the sector\u2019s rapid growth: “Clear criteria for controlling deforestation and respecting the land rights of indigenous peoples and communities should be mandatory for exports of Brazilian beef, particularly when it comes from biomes [that are] under attack,” says Adriana Charoux, spokesperson for Greenpeace\u2019s Amazon campaign.<\/p>\n

For Par\u00e1\u2019s vast beef farming sector, however, the China licences were doubly welcome following past freezes in the trade because of food safety scandals. In 2017, an expos\u00e9 caught food inspectors conspiring to approve meat that was unfit for consumption. International embargoes followed, and China temporarily halted new export accreditations for Brazilian meat processors.<\/p>\n

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