“The incident is closed”, for Brazil's Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Favaro. Faced with the outcry in Brazil over the announcement by Carrefour stores not to sell meat from Mercosur in France, the group's CEO Alexandre Bompard had to present his “apologies” to the Brazilian government, citing problems of ” communication “.
“If Carrefour's communication in France caused confusion and was interpreted as calling into question our partnership with Brazilian agriculture, we apologize,” wrote Alexandre
Bompard in a letter addressed to the minister.
Calls for boycott
“We know that Brazilian agriculture provides meat [qui se caractérise par] its high quality, its compliance with standards and its flavor,” he added. The stakes are high for the French group, which generates almost a quarter of its turnover in Brazil and has found itself targeted by calls for a boycott.
For Minister Favaro, the “untimely attitude of the CEO of Carrefour” was “rectified in time”. On Monday, Carlos Favaro welcomed the decision of companies to no longer supply Carrefour group stores to protest against the comments made by Alexandre Bompard last Wednesday.
Backtracking on standards
Carrefour's announcement was linked to France's opposition to the proposed trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and four Mercosur countries – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -, on background of demonstrations by French farmers who fear that this agreement will open the door to unfair competition.
The leader mentioned the “risk of spillover onto the French market of meat production not meeting its requirements and standards”, contrary to what he told the Brazilian minister on Tuesday. “He retracted the most important point, when he said that Brazil respected the standards,” said Carlos Favaro.
Deliveries will resume
Shortly after sending the letter to the minister and disseminating this press release, the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporters (Abiec) said “we receive with satisfaction the apology and recognition of the excellence of Brazilian products and producers” .
In a press release intended for its shareholders, the Carrefour Brazil group indicated that “the delivery schedule for beef products had been resumed and [que] the company hoped for normalization of supply in the coming days.” A source from the Brazilian giant JBS, the world's number one meat producer, confirmed to AFP that this supply had been “totally suspended” as of last Friday.
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