Deforestation alert: Brazilian soy still commonly used as pig and broiler feed

In Finland, Brazilian soy is still commonly used as pig and broiler feed. Of the 12 meat and feed industry companies that responded to the Finnwatch survey, nine confirmed that their value chain included Brazilian soy. Lantmännen Agro reported that it does not purchase soy that originates from Brazil, but the company only provided information on its own activities and not those of agricultural cooperative Lantmännen as a whole. Pouttu does not purchase soy as a raw material, but its value chain contains the purchase of meat from animals that might have been fed Brazilian soy as feed. Nordic Soya, a significant actor in the feed industry, was the only company that did not provide information to Finnwatch on the origin of the soy it purchases. The company has publicly stated that its aim to gain recognition as a producer of responsible protein. The non-transparency of its activities will not advance this objective. The company’s customers reported that they purchased soy raw materials of Brazilian origin from Nordic Soya.

All the companies that purchased Brazilian soy used RTRS or ProTerra-certified soy in Finland. Of the companies that responded to the survey, five trusted RTRS credits in assuring the responsibility of soy. The use of RTRS credits means the purchase of separate certificates, where the purchased soy cannot be tracked, and the buyer does not know where the soy is from. Subsequently, the soy used as actual feed does not necessarily meet with any certification requirements and its production has not been supervised.

Not one of the responding companies that used Brazilian soy in their value chains had tracked the Brazilian soy it had purchased all the way back to the plantation where the soy had been grown. All the companies that purchased segregated ProTerra-certified soy would in theory have had the opportunity to track the soy, but they had not done so. 

A large share of the purchases made by companies based in Finland originated from the soy trade's international giants. International raw material companies from which meat and feed production houses based in Finland purchase soy as a raw material include Denofa (Amaggi), ADM, Bunge and Sodrugestvo. Not one of these soy distributors used by Finnish companies had committed to the Cerrado Working Group/Grupo de Trabalho do Cerrado GTC agreement for the protection of the Cerrado biome. Different comparisons have found that of the operators on the list Bunge and Sodrugestvo have inadequate responsibility practices. 

Some of the responses provided by companies demonstrated that responsibility is not necessarily an intrinsic value but rather closely tied to market demand. For example, HKScan does not use certified soy in the Baltic countries. Atria’s subsidiary procures Brazilian meat for the Russian market. The company would not provide more specific information on the origin of the meat. Brazilian meat is also a high-risk product from the perspective of deforestation. 

As a summary of the Finnish soy market examined in this study it can be said that a significant portion of the companies that use and market soy in Finland relies on certificate credit system in responsibility assurance. In addition, they purchase soya from companies that have not committed to the agreement to prevent deforestation in the Cerrado. For this reason, it is very likely that the soy used in Finnish meat production for its part increases deforestation in Brazil and the destruction of ecosystems that are in their natural state. It is also possible that some of the soy used in Finland is from areas that have been illegally felled.