This Culinary Paradise Accounts for Half of Brazil’s Beef Offal Exports
Foodthink Says
How can beef be traced to verify whether it originates from deforestation-linked ranches? Do businesses and consumers fully understand the social and environmental impacts of the products they buy? What hidden environmental costs are embedded in everyday purchases? These are precisely the questions this report sets out to answer.
*This article was jointly published by Repórter Brasil and the Hong Kong Free Press. It first appeared on 31 March 2024, with Tom Grundy as the editor. Foodthink has received authorisation to translate and republish it. Click the link to read the original report.
At first glance, a handful of unremarkable Hong Kong offices seem to have little to do with the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Yet according to supply-chain data provided by the non-profit Repórter Brasil to the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), at least four Hong Kong companies have imported beef products from a single rancher whom Brazilian police have labelled “the Amazon rainforest’s greatest destroyer.”
The environmental organisation WWF states that “in nearly all Amazonian countries, livestock farming is the primary driver of deforestation.” Roughly 17% of the Amazon rainforest has seen a change in land use—forests cleared to create pastures and build roads that transport Brazilian beef to global markets.
Rancher Bruno Heller has profited directly from the illegal clearing of the Amazon rainforest. The Heller family’s farms have been fined $5 million for unlawful deforestation, while Heller himself faces charges from the Brazilian Federal Police for clearing 6,500 hectares of forest—an area nearly five times the size of Hong Kong’s Lamma Island.
1. Traceable, but sustainable?
In late January 2024, a CFS spokesperson told our reporters that these processing plants “must comply with the food safety requirements applicable to imported goods, such as being fit for human consumption and adhering to the regulations of both the exporting country and Hong Kong.”
When asked whether the sustainability of imported agricultural products is taken into account, CFS replied the following month: “Hygiene conditions, humane slaughter, meat handling, processing, production, storage and transport stages should also be regulated.” It did not, however, elaborate on the assessment process.
“At present, there are very few requirements in Brazil’s international trade relating to the social and environmental impacts of products,” said Marina Guyot, public policy manager at the non-profit organisation Imaflora, in a telephone interview with our reporters from Brazil in February 2024.
To prevent the import of products linked to deforestation risks, the EU introduced regulations in 2023 aimed at “reducing the EU’s contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation”. The legislation targets commodities such as beef, soy, and palm oil originating from areas cleared of forests after 31 December 2020, and will come into force at the end of 2024.
Although the policy has been widely welcomed, it is not expected to have a major impact on demand for Brazilian exports, as a significant share of Brazil’s shipments goes to Asia. Guedes notes that “European consumption accounts for just 5 per cent of Brazil’s total exports, and an even smaller share of its total production.”
In contrast, Hong Kong boasts a substantial demand for Brazilian beef. Though Hong Kong is geographically small and its population of 7.5 million pales in comparison to the EU’s 448 million, it stands as the largest purchaser of Brazilian beef offal.
According to Brazilian trade data, Hong Kong imported US$253.65 million worth of frozen beef offal from Brazil in 2022, representing 48 per cent of Brazil’s total exports of such products.
II. The Source of Ambiguity
In late November 2023, Foodthink reporters visited these firms but gathered little information. Galaila International is housed in a dated 1980s office building in Central, while Loyalty Union Asia overlooks Hong Kong’s main container port from an industrial unit. They were the only two companies whose physical operations could be readily traced from exterior signage.
Harvest Charm is listed at a nondescript office building in Sheung Wan, and Uni Shining at an industrial space in Tuen Mun. Yet, on the ground, there was no trace of either company’s presence. The premises listed for Uni Shining appeared to be occupied by a bridal florist.
Records from the Hong Kong Companies Registry likewise offered no further insight into the activities of these firms. Of the four, only Galaila International maintains a website, which suggests it operates as a leather supplier. The other three lack any web presence, social media accounts, or identifiable branding.
Requests for comment sent to all four companies went unanswered. A staff member at Galaila International told us over the phone that she would pass our reporter’s details to a supervisor, but we heard nothing further. Postal correspondence addressed to Uni Shining International Trading was returned as “not collected”.
In 2019, Greenpeace (Greenpeace) found that nearly a third of beef in Hong Kong came from ranches in deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, leading to calls for major supermarkets to halt the sale of “deforestation meat”.
Major supermarket chains including AEON, YATA and City’super responded to Greenpeace by stating they either do not stock Brazilian beef or do so only minimally. ParknShop later added that it would switch suppliers once its existing stock of Brazilian meat had been sold through.
“After years of campaigning… it is deeply disheartening to see that this type of meat product remains on the market in Hong Kong,” Tom Ng of Greenpeace Hong Kong told Foodthink reporters at the end of January 2024.
“Hong Kong is one of the largest importers of deforestation meat. We have consistently urged businesses to halt imports, or at the very least, stop bringing in products that have been flagged with issues,” Mr Ng said.
In February 2024, only Wellcome was selling Brazilian beef among the supermarkets inspected by this publication during field research. In early March, Wellcome’s parent company, DFI Retail Group, responded to enquiries by email, stating: “Wellcome’s procurement complies with local regulations and is committed to sustainable development.”
The group added that they “recognise the growing conversation around environmental issues” and are “rigorously reviewing our supplier network.”
A subsequent online check revealed that ParknShop also sells Brazilian beef products. This publication has contacted the supermarket chain for a response.
According to data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported 316.7 million kilograms of Brazilian meat products in 2023, of which 34.9 million kilograms were “beef” and 8 million kilograms were “meat and edible offal”.
In February 2024, when asked why demand for Brazilian beef offal in Hong Kong was so high, Louis Chan, Deputy Director of Research at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, told The Brazil Reporter that Hong Kong is “renowned worldwide for its open and free trade system… which makes it an ideal centre for international commodity trade.”
In an email, Mr Chan wrote: “There is no doubt that Brazilian beef offal… enjoys a strong market in Asia. Offal can be consumed directly, or processed for use in the food and pet food industries, as well as for animal feed to support local agricultural and livestock sectors.”
He also highlighted Hong Kong’s per capita meat consumption. A 2018 study by the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Earth Sciences found that residents consume an average of 664 grams of meat per day, Mr Chan added. “That equates to two 10-ounce steaks,” he noted.
However, not all imported Brazilian beef remains in Hong Kong. Citing government figures, Mr Chen stated that $342 million worth of Brazilian offal is re-exported from the city, with 50.3% destined for Vietnam, 29.9% for Taiwan, and 15.4% for South Korea.
3. Final destination: mainland China?
“Hong Kong not only consumes Brazilian beef but also acts as a gateway for imports into China… yet this process has not been properly tracked,” she said.
In December 2023, Alcides Torres of Scot Consultoria, one of Brazil’s leading meat industry consultancies, echoed this view in an interview with “Brazil Report”: “Some of the products exported to Hong Kong could be transshipped to mainland China.”
According to data from the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution, China’s imports of beef offal in 2022 came primarily from Uruguay, the US and New Zealand. Brazil does not feature on this list, as its products of this kind have yet to be approved by China’s General Administration of Customs.
The CFS stipulates that meat products transshipped from Hong Kong to mainland China or Macao “must be accompanied by an official health certificate issued by the country of origin, clearly stating mainland China or Macao as the final destination of the consignment”. While Macao is the third-largest transshipment market for Brazilian beef and offal re-exported from Hong Kong, mainland China does not appear on the list.
Smuggling activity peaked in 2022. That year, Hong Kong police seized 403 tonnes of smuggled frozen meat, worth approximately HK$61 million, and arrested 46 individuals. According to media reports at the time, the intercepted products included Brazilian beef offal.
Data provided by the police to this publication indicates that such seizures fell in 2023, with just 52 tonnes of suspected smuggled frozen meat, valued at HK$11 million, intercepted across four cases.
IV.Sustainability: Applying Pressure from the Demand Side
In February 2024, Lei Yu-ting, a researcher at Greenpeace’s East Asia office, told *Repórter Brasil* by email that awareness among Hong Kong consumers regarding the sustainability of meat products “is rising slowly, but not enough to change consumption habits or industry supply chains,” he added.
Mr Lei added: “When Hong Kong consumers consider whether meat products are sustainable and traceable, their primary concerns remain meat quality and food safety. It is difficult for consumers to determine whether the meat they purchase is linked to land degradation and deforestation in countries such as Brazil.”
Mr Wu from Greenpeace Hong Kong added that while public pressure is certainly important, policy changes are even more critical. “Supply chain transparency and traceability are paramount and require concerted efforts from all parties,” he said. He believes that the government, schools, non-governmental organisations and the media should also actively conduct public education on the link between meat consumption and deforestation.
“I do not know whether a direct ban on such products through government or corporate policy is feasible,” Mr Wu continued, “but that is precisely what we hope to see.”
At the Brazilian NGO Imaflora, Gu and his colleagues are working to achieve this goal. In partnership with Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office, the organisation has developed a monitoring system called “Beef on Track,” designed to create supply chains free from “socio-environmental violations,” which include deforestation on indigenous lands and forced labour.
Of the 158 slaughterhouses in Brazil’s Amazon region, 110 have signed the “Beef on Track” agreement, which requires slaughterhouses to ensure their direct suppliers comply with human rights and sustainability standards. Given the complex upstream and downstream relationships in the cattle industry, the system is not flawless, as it only monitors suppliers who sell directly to the slaughterhouses. But it is a start.
Between 2018 and 2023, “163 Beef”, a slaughterhouse that was the focus of major investigations by *Repórter Brasil* and Foodthink, purchased cattle more than 20 times from farms linked to Heller and his family, selling the offal to these four Hong Kong companies. “163 Beef” has not yet signed the “Beef on Track” agreement and did not respond to a request for comment.
Heller issued a statement through a defence lawyer shared with his daughter, stating, “Since the 1970s, our family has peacefully and undisturbedly owned our family property in the countryside of Pará State.”
The statement added: “The facts involved in the ongoing investigations are strictly confidential.” It remains unclear which specific investigation he is referring to.
“We are committed to… promoting green trade between China and Brazil, which of course includes Hong Kong,” Gu said. “If mainland China and Hong Kong also sign the Beef on Track agreement, it will greatly incentivise local Brazilian meat companies and the wider industry to do the same.”
Translated by: qiqi
Proofread by: Ze’en