Abiec considers the results of the Meat TAC to be a major development
The TAC was signed in 2009, as a device to curb illicit activities in the livestock chain in the Amazon, supported by a 2008 federal law, which made meatpacking plants jointly responsible for irregularities in their supply chain, such as fattening and finishing farms, from which animals leave for slaughter. The Meat TAC currently covers six of the nine states of the Legal Amazon – Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia and Tocantins.
Today, out of a total of 158 plants in the Legal Amazon, 111 meatpacking plants are signatories to the TAC, according to a survey conducted by the Public Prosecutor's Office together with the Institute for Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora). Twenty companies with 51 plants are members of Abiec. The TAC encompasses the criteria currently described in the Boi na Linha Protocol which brings together and standardizes procedures and parameters in protocols that evolve gradually and are taken into consideration in audits. These include illegal deforestation; overlapping with indigenous lands and conservation units; environmental embargo; slave labor; Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and changes to CAR boundaries; Rural Environmental Licensing of the state of Pará; Animal Transit Guide and productivity. In Pará, which underwent its fifth audit cycle, the percentage of non-conformities fell from 10.4% in the 2018 audit to 4.81% in the 2023 audit.
According to Abiec’s Sustainability Director, Fernando Sampaio, this has been a 15-year learning process. "The industry has built up this know-how on how to map and assess risk in its supply chain", explains Sampaio. In his speech at the event, the director placed the sector as a partner of the MPF to face the challenges that still exist, such as increasing the number of companies participating in monitoring protocols, controlling indirect suppliers, and involving other sectors, such as retail and banks. He also called for greater industry participation in the governance that currently exists in Pará, and for this governance to be expanded to ensure social participation in other states in the Amazon.
The 15th Anniversary of the TAC da Carne event was organized by Friends of the Earth, Imaflora, the Pará Alliance for Meat and the MPF. Imaflora and Friends of the Earth will be the secretariats of the TAC Support Committee in Pará.
Abiec has a cooperation agreement with Imaflora to promote the use and expansion of the Boi na Linha Protocol, and works with Amigos da Terra in the Indirect Suppliers Working Group - GTFI.
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