Brazil farmers ask EU to probe alleged French retail boycott

BRASILIA: Brazil’s main farming association on Tuesday called on the EU to investigate claims of an alleged “boycott” by French retailers in violation of the bloc’s competition rules.

The influential National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) accused four of the largest French retail groups — Carrefour, Les Mousquetaires, E. Leclerc, and Cooperative U — of a “boycott of Brazilian meat” in November last year.

It said the four groups made statements aimed at denigrating the meat products from countries in the Latin American bloc known as Mercosur, including Brazil.

They were made, CNA said, in the run up the EU’s final push to conclude a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc that was finally agreed in December 2024 — which France has fiercely opposed.

European farmers, especially French, feared the pact would open the door to unfair competition.

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Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard in November told French unions the supermarket chain would “not sell any meat coming from Mercosur”, which then led to a call for a national boycott of Carrefour stores in Brazil.

“From the EU we expect an answer: to know whether these companies have acted together to form a cartel,” Brazilian senator Tereza Cristina told AFP in an interview in Brussels.

Unable to give an exact figure on the cost, the ex-agriculture minister speaking on CNA’s behalf said there had been damage to the meat producers’ image, adding: “This cost is very difficult to measure, but it exists, because the statements were very strong.”