The provisional approval of the agreement between will increase the competitiveness and profitability of Brazilian agriculture. But it requires rigorous traceability of the entire production chain, to meet the environmental standards required by Europeans. The urgency increases as the , qwhich will come into force on December 30, 2026. From that date onwards it will be Proof of origin is mandatory for all products sent to Europe. The block prohibits the sale of products originating from deforested areas after December 31, 2020.
Brazil has the largest commercial herd in the world, more than 200 million cattle, but there is little data on their real origin. is concentrated in so-called direct suppliers. Rearing and fattening farms that sell directly to slaughterhouses qualified for export. But breeding, the first phase of the animal’s life, occurs mainly on smaller properties. This is precisely where the monitoring bottleneck lies.
The IDH Foundation, a civil organization of Dutch origin and focused on transforming agricultural commodities marketsarticulates between the field and the market, alongside those who are usually left out of traceability programs: the small calf producer.
More than an earring
For Manuela Santos, director of the IDH Foundation in Brazil, the debate on traceability tends to be tied to the issue of the earring, the animal’s identification device. “The earring requirement is important, but it does not guarantee the development of an intact chain. The problem is structural. We need to address the infrastructure, regularization and access bottlenecks to make production inclusive and economically viable”, says the executive.
O IDH Sustainable Calf Production Program was born in Mato Grosso, in 2019 and arrived in Pará in 2023. In addition to concentrating a large part of the Brazilian cattle herd, both states have a large contingent of small and medium-sized livestock farmers still outside the traceability systems. Since launch, the program has supported more than 600 calf producers. Another 600 are in the process of regularizing their activity.
The program is carried out in stages with: productive technical assistance, legal assistanceenvironmental ae and, finally, guidance to ensure traceability. Around 40 specialized technicians, in each of these phases, assist producers.
Without regularizing the property, traceability becomes impossible
The time required for land and environmental regularization depends on the history of each property at the time of entry into the program. It is necessary to check whether there is deforestation, whether the action was illegal or legal, whether it was authorized at any point. Based on this first diagnosis, the IDH Foundation and six technicians define priorities, always in conjunction with the competent public bodies.
“We understand that, to be able to scale, we need to change the technical assistance model by connecting with more digital solutions. The idea is to put technical assistance not only in favor of the producer, but also generate data for: for the slaughterhouses, for investors and buyers at the end”, says Manuela Santos.
The market also needs to do its part
One of the main bottlenecks identified by the IDH Foundation is the lack of financial incentives for producers who invest in traceability, not just small ones. Slaughterhouses and retailers pay for the quality of the meat (marbling, weight, standardization) but rarely recognize it commercially and pay extra for the verified origin of the animal.
To try to resolve this, the Foundation has been making commitments with companies to create conditions that make traceability economically attractive and accessible to the breeder. The proposal is to connect the field to the market: demonstrating that animals with proven socio-environmental origin represent less risk for investors, insurers and international buyers.
Manuela reinforces that “it is not enough to demand data if the producer does not have the conditions and incentive to generate it. We work to ensure that Brazil faces these challenges in a systemic way, linking the producing end to the financial market”. By ensuring that the investment reaches the end, the program allows partner companies to verify concrete results in sustainability, such as the reduction of deforestation and total transparency of the origin of the herd, consolidating Brazil as a leader in regenerative and low-carbon livestock farming.
A The goal of the IDH Foundation is to ensure that Brazilian livestock farmers are not excluded from the global market, due to the lack of a system that was built without considering the reality of small and medium-sized livestock farmers.
