LatinNews Daily - 31 May 2023

* Brazil’s private banking federation (Febraban) has announced a new environmental compliance protocol for their loans to meatpackers and slaughterhouses, requiring companies to monitor their supply chains and demonstrate that they have no direct or indirect connection to cattle farming associated with illegal deforestation. The protocol will be applied to the meatpackers’ supply chains in the Amazon region and in the north-eastern state of Maranhão and the monitoring systems must be set up by December 2025 in order for meat companies to be eligible for credit. The companies’ monitoring systems must report data such as the cattle farms’ proximity to or overlap with legally protected areas, including indigenous demarcations and conservation areas, as well as data on social conditions for the workers on the farms or slaughterhouses. Brazil’s association of meat exporters (Abiec) has criticised Febraban’s announcement, arguing that the banks are giving meatpacking companies unfairly harsh treatment. Abiec called for the monitoring requirements to also be applied to the banks’ other clients in the meat industry supply chain such as rural landowners.