Beef and soy exports to EU and China put fresh water at global risk

“This research highlights a major, but often overlooked vulnerability in international trade, and calls for the urgent need to assess and manage water use in global supply chains, says Centre researcher Lan Wang Erlandsson, one of the authors of the study published in Communications Earth & Environment (Nature portfolio).

For the first time, exposure of consumer markets to water scarcity risks has been calculated by linking water-use data for beef and soy production at municipality level in Brazil, to specific river basins.

The research estimates that soy production used a total of 1 km3/year irrigation water, while beef production used 10.4 km3/year over the 2015–2017 period. Together, this is equivalent to almost 40% of the capacity of Brazil’s Itaipú reservoir, one of the largest in the country.

The research also finds that 18% of water use for China’s soy and beef imports from Brazil, and 54% of water use for the EU’s soy and beef imports from Brazil, came from river basins with either high or critical water scarcity. This means that a significant portion of the trade in these commodities is exposed to physical risks due to reduced water availability.

The unique data on water and supply chains connected to beef and soy have been mapped by Trase, an initiative of Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Canopy.

The study further shows how a multi-indicator assessment is key to guiding decisions in commodity sectors towards sustainable production and supply chains.
This novel research was presented at the international World Water Week in Stockholm on Tuesday 26 August in the session Strategic water and climate actions within planetary boundaries.