New EU forced labour rules to crack down on exploitation in agri-food supply chains

EU negotiators reached a deal on Tuesday morning (5 March) on a new regulation aiming to ban products linked to forced labour from the bloc’s market, with potential implications for agricultural and food commodities produced in and outside the bloc. 

The rules apply to “any product made using forced labour,” including those produced in the EU for domestic consumption or export, and imported goods, without singling out specific companies or industries.

The new rules may impact certain agricultural commodities associated with forced labour. The US government considers that these practices may be used in the production of Brazilian beef, sugarcane, coffee, Ivorian cocoa, Indonesian palm oil, and Chinese fish – all major imports for the EU.

Steve Trent, CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), stressed the need for robust regulation, citing evidence of slavery-like practices in the Brazilian cattle sector.

“Our investigations have found clear evidence of violence, coercion and other serious human rights abuses on Brazilian cattle ranches and EU imports of Brazilian beef may be tainted by them,” he said.

The South American country is a key supplier of cattle products to the EU – notably to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain – accounting for 21.5% of total imports in 2022.

The 2023 EJF report found that two cattle ranches approved for exporting to the EU had appeared on the “Dirty List” of the Brazilian government, which names and shames producers who have subjected workers to forced labour practices.

“It is vital that the EU uses its powers to drive lasting, positive change on the international stage while ensuring that European producers are not undercut by products tainted by human rights abuses,” said Trent.

EU strikes speedy agreement banning forced-labour products

EU co-legislators sealed a provisional deal in the early hours of Tuesday (5 March) on rules that will ban forced labour products from the bloc’s import and export markets, overturning expectations that the law would fail to pass within the current legislative mandate after months of stalling progress. 

Recently, an investigation conducted by the Outlaw Ocean Project, a US-based non-profit journalism organisation, found that Chinese seafood produced with North Korean forced labour could have reached the cafeterias of the European Parliament – a claim that was denied by the institution.

Italian farming association Coldiretti also welcomed the agreement reached by EU lawmakers, stressing that unfair competition from non-EU countries “damages Italian agriculture”.

“We have repeatedly urged the European Union to block imports of food products obtained by exploitation,” said Ettore Prandini, Coldiretti’s president. He emphasised that the EU should enforce a principle of reciprocity “on all trade agreements,” a demand repeatedly made by the sector during the recent farmer protests.

Implications for food products

Under the agreement, authorities will assess forced labour risks based on information from various sources, potentially triggering an official investigation. Products found to have been made with forced labour will be removed from retail locations and their placement on the market, as well as import into the EU, will be banned.

Companies will also be required to destroy the affected goods to prevent re-exporting or repurposing. If only a part of a product is in violation of the forced labour regulation and is considered “replaceable,” only that part will be disposed of and not the whole product.

However, the EU Council highlighted that, in the case of processed food products such as sauce using beef produced with forced labour, the whole product will be destroyed as the affected part is not removable.

“Made in EU” not spared

The new rules extend to EU agriculture, a sector known for its heavy reliance on seasonal migrant workforce for the most arduous and lowest-paid tasks in farming. According to European Parliament data, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Poland employ the highest numbers of non-national farm workers.

In Huelva, a leading strawberry-producing region in southern Spain, investigations launched by journalists and farming organisations have exposed cases of labour and sexual abuse against seasonal workers – primarily Moroccan women.

Similar situations have been reported in Almeria, Spain, and Ragusa, Italy, according to a 2018 study commissioned by the European Parliament. The report describes how Romanian and Moroccan women live in “inhumane conditions,” suffering threats, blackmail, violence, and sexual abuse.

In turn, EU countries have taken tentative steps towards regularising the situation of seasonal workers.

This week, the French government included agriculture in its list of “short-staffed” sectors to facilitate the recruitment of non-Europeans already irregularly working in France, as part of efforts to fill the labour gap in the country’s agricultural sector.

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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France eases recruitment criteria for non-EU agricultural workers

The French government has included agriculture in its list of "short-staffed" sectors to facilitate the recruitment of non-Europeans already irregularly working in France as part of efforts to fill the labour gap.