Soy supply chain links TESCO to forest destruction

An investigation of environmental group Mighty Earth shows that UK's top retailer Tesco is a basket of problems for the Amazon rainforest. Tesco continues to do business with known forest destroyers such as Cargill, adding fuel to the fire of Amazon deforestation. UK food retailers like Tesco are signatories to the UK Soy Manifesto which committed them to ensure their supply chains were "deforestation- and conversion-free" by 2020, with a further commitment to stop sourcing from suppliers linked to deforestation or land conversion by 2025.

Tesco is the UK's largest supermarket chain whose chicken is supplied by Avara. Avara foods is the UK's largest chicken producer and is part-owned by Cargill. It is one of the UK produces with greatest exposure to Brazilian soy and is directly supplied with feed by Cargill. Soy is a key ingredient in animal feed, particularly for intensively farmed chickens and pigs. Around 70% of the UK's soy is imported by Cargill and 75% of Cargill's soy comes into the country from Santarem port in Brazil. The report of Mighty Earth identifies the Santa Ana farm in Brazil's state Mato Grosso on which 400 hectares of forest were illegaly burned in September 2022 to make way for soy.

The farm supplies soy to Cargill, which exports the beans via Santarem port to locations around the world, including directly to the UK. Cargill previously had removed the farm from the list of its approved suppliers, after Brazilian authorities documented illegal deforestation on the farm, however reinstated them in 2022.

As the UK’s biggest retailer and with such a dominant market share, Tesco should use its power as a force for good to clean up its supply chains and cut ties with Cargill - Sign Mighty Earth's petition to Tesco.