According to the Brazilian Confederation of Agri-producers, French retailers are boycotting and “denigrating” the quality of meat products from MERCOSUR countries.
French supermarket chains Carrefour, Les Mousquetaires, E. Leclerc and Coopérative U stand accused of boycotting the sale of Brazilian meat, undermining the market opening created by an EU trade deal with South American companies.
A Brazilian confederation of agri-producers has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, pointing to coordinated statements by the four major retailers in late 2024, which, it believes, amounted to denigration and anticompetitive behavior. These chains account for 75% of the French retail market.
The Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil, known as the CNA, said the supermarkets were purposefully “denigrating” the quality of meat products from Mercosur, a South American trade group that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.
In December, negotiators from the EU and Mercosur reached a political agreement, which includes improved access to European markets for South American agricultural produce.
But the CNA says that in the month before that deal was agreed, the heads of the four supermarket chains made coordinated statements against meat from Mercosur, amounting to a collective boycott.
The statements were allegedly made on LinkedIn, in press releases, and in TV talk shows. The CNA also points to refusals by Carrefour and Les Mousquetaires to sell meat from Mercosur, as well as broader slurs against the quality of Brazilian produce.
Tereza Cristina Dias, a senator for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, warned of the risks of the “influence of such statements in other markets” and defended the quality of Brazilian beef.
“Our products are sound and of great quality. They are sold in over 150 countries,” Dias said, urging the commission to investigate. “What we cannot accept is the denigration of our beef.”
Gedeão Pereira, the CNA's vice-president, said his members’ products complied with the EU standards, which were among the most rigorous in the world. Sueme Mori Andrade, also of the CNA, said there was a risk of “spillover effects for other retailers.”
Dias said the complaint targeted the behavior of four private companies and that the CNA wasn’t criticizing the Mercosur trade deal.
In recent years, the commission has also paid greater attention to claims of denigration in recent years, looking into pharma companies that bad-mouth rival products in an effort to scare off potential buyers.
Source: MLex
