- Brazil’s ‘Dirty List’ has drawn renewed attention following Repórter Brasil’s recent investigations into Brazilian agri-suppliers with links to global supply chains. Starbucks, Syngenta and Philip Morris were recently named in investigation reports. Further details are below. Established in 2003, the Dirty List ‘names and shames’ employers found by government inspectors to have subjected workers to conditions akin to slave labour. The offence is defined by any one of four criteria: forced labour, exhausting hours, degrading conditions, and/or debt bondage.
- Before being listed, employers can either adopt corrective measures or potentially go through two administrative appeals. Once added, they remain on the list for two years and are removed only after identified issues have been remediated. Listed employers are barred from accessing public credit and may face restrictions from some private banks.
- Brazil’s “Dirty List” should be included in due diligence processes for any supply chains linked to Brazil. The most recent version can be downloaded here: Combate ao Trabalho em Condições Análogas às de Escravo. The list is updated twice yearly.
- Repórter Brasil alleges that coffee farm Fazenda Floresta remained certified after its workers were rescued from slave labour conditions in 2021 by Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and Employment (MET). Due to the MET’s findings, the farm’s owner, Guilherme Sodré Alckmin Júnior, was added to Brazil’s Dirty List in April 2023.
- Alckmin claims that certification and verification visits to his farm continued even after his inclusion on the Dirty These claims form part of his defence in an ongoing lawsuit by agri-business Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a supplier to Starbucks.
- Agri-business, Santa Colomba Agropecuária, was fined in 2023 by the MET for subjecting a worker to degrading conditions.
- Repórter Brasil alleges that, after losing both of its appeals, Santa Colomba sought to avoid being added to the Dirty List through political interference. Acting Labour Minister Francisco Macena da Silva has allegedly blocked its inclusion on October 2025’s List following a request from Santa Columba to intervene.
- The MET has clarified that the actions taken by the acting Labour Minister are allowed by law. According to Reporter Brasil, this is an infrequent intervention and has only happened once since the List’s establishment in 2003. In September 2025, acting Labour Minister da Silva allegedly intervened to delay the addition of a major, Brazilian meat supplier to the List.
- Financial records show that Santa Colomba has links to major global businesses, including Philip Morris and Syngenta Seeds.