Linking land investments, supply chains, and deforestation: Insights from soy land deals in South America
This study – authored by Land Matrix members – investigates large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) for soy production in Argentina and Brazil, analysing investor origin, trade destinations, and links to deforestation risk. The analysis combines data from the Land Matrix, TRASE, and ORBIS and applies a spatially explicit approach to link investor, trade, deforestation, and soy cultivation data to LSLAs and analyse their geographic and quantitative relationships.
The study finds that domestic investors account for the majority (54.7%) of the acquired soy-producing land, with foreign investors from the US (15.4%), the EU (5.6%), and the Gulf region (4.6%) playing smaller roles. While China emerges as a dominant export destination for soy products, it is not represented among the investor countries in the dataset. The EU accounts for a considerable share of trade (16.2%) and a moderate share of investment (5.6%).
The results also show that the origins of investments in LSLAs are largely decoupled from the destination of the products and that 14.2%, or 269,350 ha, of the total soy production area in the sample is likely linked to deforestation, with only 2.2% destined for EU markets.
The findings of this study highlight the need for coordinated multilateral governance that accounts for actors at multiple levels, effective supply chain measures, and regulation of domestic investors.
These insights contribute to ongoing efforts to design more inclusive and effective governance of global agricultural commodity networks.
Authors: Sandra Eckert, Lucas Seghezzo, Cristian Darío Venencia, Carlos Ortega Insaurralde, Louis Zwyssig, Gabi Sonderegger and Markus Giger
Published: 2026
Source: Global Environmental Change Advances