Supermarkets in Brazil belonging to French retail giant Carrefour are facing a boycott over the company's announcement it will not sell meat from Mercosur countries in France. The row is linked to France's opposition to finalizing a European Union trade deal with Mercosur – covering Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay – amid protests from French farmers who fear the pact would open the door to unfair competition.
Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard told French unions on Wednesday that the supermarket chain will "not sell any meat coming from Mercosur."
The announcement triggered indignation in Brazil, with the governor of Mato Grosso – one of the country's most agriculture-intensive states – leading a call for a national boycott of Carrefour stores. "The way you treat me, I can treat you, too. So, if Brazil is not good for selling meat to them, then they are not good for selling French products," the governor, Mauro Mendes, said in a video released Friday on social media. "I, as a citizen, will no longer shop at their stores," he said, winning online approval from many Brazilians.
Carrefour stressed that the announced aversion to Mercosur meat applied only to Carrefour's French outlets. But Brazilian media said meat-delivery trucks were refusing to supply 150 Carrefour supermarkets in Brazil.
Carrefour Brazil Group said in a statement that reports that some of its supermarkets had empty meat shelves because of the boycott "contributed to disinformation." "No shop is unstocked," it said.
France's government has mounted fierce opposition to the Mercosur deal, a long-negotiated agreement that has stoked the ire of farmers across the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron on November 18-19 attended a G20 summit in Brazil. Just before that, he made a trip to Argentina, whose President Javier Milei, he said, was "not satisfied" with the pact.
The European Commission, however, is intent on swiftly concluding the Mercosur trade accord, whose contours were agreed in 2019. Germany and Spain, too, have expressed impatience to see the deal done.