Leading grain companies are planning to exit the Brazilian soya moratorium, which is designed to protect the Amazon basin from deforestation resulting from soyabean farming expansion, Reuters reports.
The soy moratorium agreement bars signatories from buying soyabeans grown on Amazonian farms deforested after July 2008.
In an announcement on 5 January, the governor of Mato Grosso state Mauro Mendes was quoted as saying lobby group Abiove had officially informed the state government that the association and major traders were leaving the pact, citing a tax law change on 1 January as a key factor, the report on the same date said.
Abiove, which represents grain trading and crushing companies in Brazil including ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Cofco and Louis Dreyfus had confirmed in a subsequent statement that it had “initiated talks” to exit the pact, which was backed by the federal government and conservation groups, Reuters wrote.
On 5 January, the group and about two-thirds of the companies that had previously participated in the soya pact no longer appeared on the moratorium agreement’s website.
Commenting on the move, leading conservation association the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) was quoted as saying the decision was an environmental setback.
Departure of the firms from the pact “weakens one of the most effective instruments for combating deforestation in the country,” and exposed farmers to increasing climate risks, WWF said.
Greenpeace was quoted as saying the move would violate promises made to investors and international markets.
The moratorium has been credited with slowing the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
However, in a 29 December report, Reuters wrote that some of the leading global soyabean traders were preparing to withdraw from the deal to preserve tax benefits in Mato Grosso, where a new law eliminating the benefits for moratorium participants took force at the start of 2026.
The Association of Soybean and Corn Producers of Mato Grosso (Aprosoja-MT), an association representing farmers in Mato Grosso that had pressured companies for years to end the pact, welcomed Abiove’s announcement.
The farmer group called the decision a victory, claiming the moratorium agreement was illegal and unfair to those who complied with the Brazilian Forest Code, Reuters wrote.
