Brazil Regulator Agrees to Keep Amazon Soy Ban Through 2025

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s antitrust regulator ruled in favor of major soybean traders, saying companies including Cargill Inc. and Bunge Global SA are allowed to continue a pact that boycotts crops from recently deforested land in the Amazon.

A majority of regulator Cade’s counselors voted Tuesday to lift through the remainder of 2025 a preventive measure enacted in August that suspended the moratorium. Activities related to the moratorium, such as the auditing of soy suppliers, may continue through the end of the year. 

The decision gives companies and government agencies enough time to deliberate and reach an understanding, said counselor José Levi Mello do Amaral Júnior. His winning vote was followed by another three of the regulators’ six members. 

Still, the antitrust authority will continue an investigation on whether the agreement — a public commitment by traders to avoid sourcing soybeans from land deforested in the Amazon after 2008 — created a cartel.

While not definitive, the ruling reduces immediate environmental risks as Brazil prepares to host the COP30 climate summit in Belém in November. 

The decision comes after an appeal filed by industry group Abiove, which represents traders such as Cargill, Bunge, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Louis Dreyfus Co. The traders argued that the moratorium is essential to preserve the Amazon forest. 

Abiove said in a statement following the decision that it “remains available to collaborate with the competent authorities in order to promote legal certainty and regulatory predictability in the sector.”

--With assistance from Mariana Durao.

(Updates to more fully describe preventive measure in second paragraph.)

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