Radar Verde Cerrado 2026 assessed 225 beef companies, responsible for 262 meatpacking plants in the Cerrado biome. The results reveal a scenario of low transparency and insufficient control of the beef supply chain in the biome.

• Only 7 companies, approximately 3% of the total assessed, demonstrated some level of supply chain control over direct suppliers.
• When the assessment considers the full supply chain, including both direct suppliers and indirect suppliers, 96% of companies were classified as having a very low Deforestation Commitment Score and 4% a low score.
• No company demonstrated a moderate, high, or very high Deforestation Commitment Score.
• None of the assessed companies responded to the questionnaire sent to supplement information on their monitoring and supply chain control practices for cattle suppliers.

The main critical issue is the control of indirect suppliers. A direct supplier is the farm that sells cattle directly to the beef company. An indirect supplier is the farm through which the animal passed before reaching the direct supplier, for example during the breeding and rearing stages. Without control over these earlier stages, a beef company may purchase cattle from an apparently compliant farm that received animals originating from areas associated with deforestation or other irregularities.

This challenge is already recognized within the public cattle sector agenda. In 2026, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office announced new guidelines for the gradual control of indirect suppliers in the cattle supply chain in the Amazon. The MPF defined indirect suppliers as those supplying farms that sell directly to meatpacking companies and stated that the guidelines would become part of the Cattle Supplier Monitoring Protocol (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office [MPF], 2026). Boi na Linha also highlighted that the rule establishes technical criteria for blocking and unblocking suppliers, defines first-tier indirect suppliers, and provides for gradual implementation through 2028 (Boi na Linha, 2026).

The absence of responses from companies to the Radar Verde questionnaire does not, by itself, mean that they are purchasing cattle from deforested areas. However, it indicates low active transparency. When a company does not respond, the assessment is limited to publicly available evidence, such as disclosed policies, independent audit results, official documents, and information from public databases.