Minerva dominates market share and deforestation risks

Following Minerva’s acquisition of its competitor JBS’s Paraguayan subsidiary in 2017, the Brazilian food group went from a 19% share of Paraguayan beef exports in 2016 to a 41% share in 2018. Trase data suggest that Minerva sources much of its beef from the Chaco region, which has been experiencing intensive deforestation, largely driven by cattle ranching. This is due in part to the fact that the company’s Paraguayan subsidiary, Frigomerc, owns an export-oriented slaughterhouse on the edge of the Chaco. In 2018, Trase estimates that the company’s exports accounted for almost 70% of all cattle deforestation risk among Paraguayan exporters. Minerva’s company zero-deforestation commitment only applies to the Amazon biome and its commitments with regard to slave labour, fraudulent land claims, violence and invasions of indigenous territory also only apply to products from Brazil.