Today is the meat, who knows what tomorrow. The Carrefour case, exploded in Brazil to the point of occupying the front pages of newspapers (despite the fact that former president Bolsonaro's involvement in the attempted coup of 2022 is in the news these days), shows that it is unlikely that we will reach a free trade agreement between Europe and Mercosur, or the trade union of South American countries. In reality this agreement already exists, but it should be perfected and negotiations are at a standstill due to the opposition of some countries where farmers are in revolt because they fear competition that is not subject - for now - to the same environmental and health protocols.
To compensate for this regulatory misalignment, Brussels would have liked to have the ban on imports of agri-food products (including meat) from South America, if obtained through deforestation: at that point, however, it was the partners in the southern hemisphere who rebelled, forcing the president of the commission Ursula Von der Leyen to postpone the measure for a year. Among the countries most involved in this short circuit is theItaly, with protests from insiders and the majority being divided on what to do, but even more so French, where President Emmanuel Macron is having a popularity crisis and certainly cannot afford to openly displease the agricultural world.
Carrefour, first announces meat boycott
At the centre of the conflict is, not by chance, the transalpine group Carrefour, which as is known operates in large-scale distribution and which has its own in Brazil its first market by turnover outside France. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and one of the world's largest exporters of beef, although very little towards Europe and even less towards France: respectively 3,3% and 0,6% of the total exported (50% is sold to China), according to data from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, which among other things in recent days has ridden the wave of protest, supporting the boycott of Carrefour by local producers. boycott had been triggered by the CEO's statements Alexandre bompard, which last week had announced the Stop the sale of meat from Mercosur in the chain's stores in France.
Bompard's move had actually been anticipated by that of other European groups, in particular its compatriot Danone which had decided to stop buying soy, which it uses to produce animal feed. Like Danone, however, Carrefour has also been forced to reconsider and last Wednesday the CEO published a official letter of apology in the main Brazilian newspapers, in which he took back his doubts previously expressed about "a product that does not comply with the rules", defining the South American meat as "high quality and excellent flavour". A change of direction granted to put an end to the boycott, but encouraged by the market itself: in the session last Monday, the Carrefour shares have lost nearly 3% on the stock market, while Goldman Sachs estimated that the lack of meat sales could have affected the company's profits by 1%.
Then the U-turn and the apologies
Il turnabout However, it was judged "weak and insufficient in relation to the damage to the image caused", according to the words of the President of the Brazilian Chamber Arthur Lira. That the controversy had now reached the highest levels of politics, bordering on a diplomatic incident, was already clear on Tuesday, when the French deputy Vincent Trebuchet, speaking at the Assemblée Nationale, had said that "our farmers do not want to die and our plates are not garbage dumps", referring to the meat produced in South America which would be contaminated with harmful hormones and antibiotics to health, as well as being co-responsible for the massive deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
The Parliament had met precisely to express its opinion on theEU-Mercosur agreement, and obviously the vote against passed by a very large majority, with a bipartisan agreement that obtained the support of practically all the parties, including the far-right opposition of Marine Le Pen. For now the game has been archived with the Carrefour's apologies , End of the boycott of the French GDO chain in Brazil, but the protests of the farmers across the Alps continue and suggest that this was only the first chapter of a clash destined to worsen in the coming months. The agreement between Europe and South America, despite pressure from Brazilian President Lula to close it by the end of the year, is in fact moving further and further away. On the table are the ecological transition, which is not negotiable, but also enormous economic interests and, last but not least, the health of consumers.
