Senator and former Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) criticized this Tuesday (26) the request for a public retraction by the global CEO of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, after what he considered an “attack” on Brazilian meat.
“The Brazilian response was good at first, but we cannot willingly accept the excuse made today by the French Carrefour. It is a protocol excuse and does not actually respond to the damage caused to Brazilian products abroad, despite the negligible importance of France”, said Tereza Cristina during a weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA).
“The French CEO’s response is very little to the damage they caused”, criticized the former minister. “I think the industry returned supply to the Carrefour Group in Brazil quickly, but reacted in kind with pride. If [o produto brasileiro] It’s not good there, it’s not good here”, he defended.
In the letter he sent to the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, the global CEO of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, apologized for the confusion generated with Brazilian agriculture and recognized the quality of the country’s meat, but did not say whether the group will resume purchasing meat from Mercosur by French units.
A week ago, Bompard announced on its networks that the retailer would commit to not selling meat from Mercosur in France, regardless of the “prices and quantities of meat that these countries may offer”, stating that these products do not respect the requirements and standards of the French market.
In retaliation for the measure, Brazilian slaughterhouses suspended the supply of meat to the Carrefour Group in Brazil and conditioned the resumption of supply of products to Carrefour Brasil on a public retraction by Bompard.
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For Tereza Cristina, the French reaction, not only from Carrefour, but also with statements from executives from Tereos and Intermarché, coincides with the progress of negotiations for the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU), to which France is against.
“Imagine if Brazil starts sealing French wines and dairy products that will arrive here with reduced import tariffs. There are points in the agreement that go against our interests, but we think the agreement raises the bar for products. At first, they (European producers) have much more to gain from the agreement than we do”, observed Tereza Cristina. “The statements made by the CEOs of Carrefour, Tereos and Intermarché are unreasonable, unfounded and unfortunate.”
The former minister recalled that she invited the French ambassador to the country, Emanuel Lenain, to explain the country’s stance in relation to Brazilian agribusiness at the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
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“We need to continue talking, because the French Minister of Agriculture made a very strong statement yesterday with misleading information,” he said, defending the approval of the environmental reciprocity law.
