Brazilian environment agency Ibama has notified 12 meatpacking plants, including two operated by JBS SA , of an inspection into their alleged involvement in a scheme to buy cattle from illegally cleared land in the Amazon rainforest

In a statement, JBS said it did not buy cattle from the farm that Ibama said had been illegally razed. The meatpacker added that it can provide further information to the agency once it gains access to the full inspection report.

Privately owned Frigol and Mercurio are also among the 12 beef producers under review, the document seen by Reuters showed.

 

Frigol responded that Ibama had made a mistake, adding it also had not bought cattle from the farm the agency said had been illegally razed.

 

 “Producing, selling or buying cattle from these embargoed areas is an environmental crime and those responsible are fined”

 

 

Mercurio Chairman Lincoln Bueno told Reuters a third-party firm monitors the origin of the animals it processes, and that it does not do business with properties with environmental and labor irregularities.

 

Ibama on Thursday said it was inspecting plants that were “acquiring suspicious cattle, triangulated with ‘clean’ farms, to disguise their illegal origin.”

 

Ibama added that it had already fined six unnamed meatpackers 4 million reais ($740,000) for directly buying 8,172 head of cattle from what it called “embargoed areas.”

 

Ibama had also seized more than 7,000 head of cattle that were on 2,100 hectares of farms it had blocked from commercial use after illegal deforestation. It said it fined the violators a total of 49 million reais ($9.04 million), without specifying which companies or people they were.

 

“Producing, selling or buying cattle from these embargoed areas is an environmental crime and those responsible are fined,” Ibama’s statement said. ($1 = 5.4212 reais)