Brazil’s antitrust regulator, CADE, on Sept. 30 decided to suspend the Amazon soy moratorium from Jan. 1, 2026. Depending on the probe’s course of action, this could dismantle one of the nation’s most important private sector pacts credited with slowing deforestation of the tropical rainforest for soy plantations. Initiated in 2006, the Amazon soy moratorium is an agreement between soy traders, industry groups and environmental organizations to not purchase soy grown on land in the Amazon cleared after 2008. Its signatories include commodity-trading giants Cargill, Bunge, Cofco and Louis Dreyfus. CADE suspended the moratorium in August this year, but a federal court reinstated it one week later. At a hearing on Sept. 30, CADE’s councilors voted 4-2 to postpone the suspension by three months until Dec. 21, 2025. The two in favor wanted an immediate suspension. According to José Levi, a CADE councilor who supported the delay, the three-month window would allow time for private parties and public officials to engage in dialogue. CADE president Gustavo Augusto said at the hearing that the decision is focused on preventing unilateral decisions by multinational companies. “We cannot allow foreign multinationals to regulate a product essential to human life, because we are talking about food. Soy is protein … meat depends on soy.” The Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA), a lobby group representing soy farmers, said in a statement the moratorium pact is illegal because it goes beyond Brazilian law and harms farmers who have farms legally cleared after 2008. “CNA…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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