Brazil farm lobby to EU: French retailers are illegally disparaging our meat

A lobby group representing Brazil’s cattle farmers filed a complaint Tuesday with the European Commission alleging that France’s top supermarkets broke EU law by bad-mouthing their meat.

The Agriculture and Livestock Confederation (CNA) alleges that four top French retailers — Carrefour, Les Mousquetaires, E.Leclerc and Coopérative U — coordinated to boycott and denigrate meat products from Brazil and the Mercosur trade pact of South American countries.

The CNA states in its complaint that the four chains collectively control 75 percent of France's national market, and that they broke EU competition rules in November when their executives criticized the EU-Mercosur trade deal.

The deal, finalized in December by the EU executive and the four Mercosur member states — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — triggered protests from French farmers concerned that Europe would be flooded with South American meat.

Brazil's farmers ultimately want access to the EU market, Brazilian Senator Tereza Cristina told POLITICO in an interview in Brussels, adding that defamatory claims against Brazilian beef threaten to limit the opportunities the trade agreement provides.

The CNA alleges that a series of announcements — beginning with a Nov. 20 Linkedin post by Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard declaring his company would cease selling Mercosur meat — were part of a broader defamation campaign. 

Days later, Coopérative U CEO Dominique Schelcher told a French news program that the meat sold by the chain is 100 percent French and that "there is no Brazilian meat today, and there will be none tomorrow" in its shops.

The Brazilian farmers' group claims that the concerns raised by these coordinated statements are unfounded, as all meat imported into the bloc from Brazil complies with rigorous EU food safety standards. The CNA also highlights that the retailers' announcements explicitly called for "solidarity" and encouraged other market players to join their boycott of Mercosur meat.

“Internal problems should be solved internally," Cristina said. "France should solve theirs ... not by badmouthing and defaming products from other countries that are their competitors." 

The complaint alleges that the grocery retailers may be in breach of both the EU’s anti-cartel rules and its prohibition on abuse of dominance. They suspect that the boycott of Brazilian meat is ongoing.   

The association is asking the Commission to intervene as they are concerned that the harm caused by the retailers' conduct is not limited to France, given their presence in other EU member states.

"We have received the complaint, which we are currently assessing under our standard procedures," a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO.

Carrefour, Les Mousquetaires, E.Leclerc and Coopérative U did not respond to requests by POLITICO for comment.

This article has been updated to add the Commission's response.