French supermarket group Carrefour attempted Tuesday to end a supplier "boycott" of its stores in Brazil by apologizing for refusing to sell Mercosur-origin meat in its outlets in France.
"We apologize" if the domestic French retail ban announced last week "created confusion," Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard said in a letter to Brazil's agriculture minister released to media including AFP.
Meat suppliers in Brazil have since last Friday halted deliveries to Carrefour stores, in a campaign termed a "boycott" by Brazilian media that on Monday earned vocal support from the agriculture minister, Carlos Favaro.
The transatlantic row spoke to rising tensions over a long-negotiated trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc grouping Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
France is fiercely opposed to the EU signing off on the deal, which protesting French farmers fear would usher in unfair competition undercutting their livelihoods.
Brazil -- Latin America's agricultural powerhouse that dominates Mercosur -- is hoping the pact will be finalized by the end of next month. EU countries Germany and Spain also want it swiftly completed.
Bompard stepped into the breach last week when, seeking to appease French farmers' unions, he pledged in a statement on his LinkedIn account that Carrefour supermarkets in France would "not sell any meat coming from Mercosur."
That triggered indignation in Brazil, with politicians and the meat industry viewing it as a slur on the quality of Brazilian beef exports.
The governor of Mato Grosso, an agriculture-intensive state, said Friday he would respond by snubbing Carrefour.
"The way you treat me, I can treat you, too," said the governor, Mauro Mendes, in a video released on social media.
Many Brazilians online joined in by saying they, too, would suspend trips to their local Carrefour-run supermarket.
The supermarket chain on Monday admitted the decision by suppliers to stop deliveries was impacting its customers in Brazil.
In his damage-limitation letter, Bompard noted that Carrefour's French operations regularly sourced "nearly all the meat needed for our activities in France" in line with French consumer preferences.
In Brazil, Bompard said, Carrefour sourced almost all the meat it sold from Brazilian producers.
He stressed that Carrefour knew Brazilian meat to be "of high quality," "tasty" and meeting relevant standards.
"If the Carrefour France statement generated confusion and could be interpreted as questioning our partnership with Brazilian agriculture and a criticism of it, we apologize," Bompard said.
He highlighted the fact that his group has more than 130,000 employees in Brazil.
Carrefour makes a quarter of its global revenues in Brazil.
The Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC) reacted by saying: "Brazil's agricultural industry is pleased with the apology and recognition of the excellence of Brazilian products and Brazilian producers by Carrefour's global CEO Alexandre Bompard."
"We hope that, with that, the operations of the French chain will be re-established," it said in a statement, without specifying whether it was speaking of Carrefour operations in Brazil or in France.
Next week, the Mercosur countries are to hold a summit in Uruguay, with discussions to include progress on the trade accord with the European Union, which has been negotiated since 1999.
