MULTINATIONALS including Switzerland’s Nestlé, Germany’s Melitta and Israel’s Strauss Group — one of the companies that controls the Brazil’s 3Corações coffee brand — maintained business relationships with a Brazilian company fined 14 times by Ibama, the Brazilian environmental agency, for buying coffee and black pepper from farms that, according to the agency, grew the products in violation of environmental rules.
The penalties were imposed on Grancafé, based in Linhares, state of Espírito Santo, between April 2024 and June 2026. According to Ibama, the company received at least 1,833 60-kilogram bags of coffee and 2.46 tonnes of black pepper grown in areas placed under environmental embargoes for illegal deforestation and other damage to the Atlantic Forest.
An environmental embargo is a measure used by the agency to halt activities in areas where violations have occurred and, in cases of deforestation, allow native vegetation to recover. Ibama says farms in Jaguaré and Vila Valério, both in Espírito Santo, continued growing crops in areas already under embargo and subsequently sold their produce to Grancafé.
Even after being cited, the Brazilian company exported coffee to Nestlé and Strauss Group subsidiaries in Europe in 2025, according to customs data accessed by Repórter Brasil. Grancafé also appears on Nestlé’s latest supplier list, published on the Swiss company’s website in April 2026. Melitta confirmed to Repórter Brasil that Grancafé is one of its suppliers.
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In response to Repórter Brasil, Grancafé said it “has never adopted a business policy of knowingly purchasing products from illegally deforested areas” and that, “when an environmental irregularity that may affect the products traded is objectively identified, appropriate measures are taken, taking into account the specific circumstances of each case”.
The company said it has submitted its defence in