Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 15
1 McDonald's receiving beef in the USA from abroad that is
2 further backed up by the fact that often we are talking
3 about the same companies, for example OSI, that crop up all
4 over the world as suppliers to McDonald's, having export
5 plants in Brazil supplying OSI. For example, Glenmark
6 plant in the USA having their own plant in the USA, a
7 supplier of McDonald's. OK, we cannot touch that stuff,
8 claims McDonald's, because it is imported, but the overlap
9 is not just a statistical inevitability argument; there is
10 also the commercial expediency, if you like, argument that
11 the inter-relationship is so close that only a very
12 well-policed system is likely to be able to stop that
13 overlap. So that is the general point.
14
15 Mr. Cesca, on page 27 of day 220, said he had never asked
16 or investigated if beef had been exported from Brazil to
17 McDonald's elsewhere, or to McDonald's in the UK. I think
18 I have got a reference here, but I am not exactly sure. He
19 did comment on the Lord Vestey letter, saying that he did
20 not know anything about the fattening of cattle and the
21 movement of cattle to areas to be fattened. As we have
22 heard, he had not investigated anything about land disputes
23 or indigenous people, disputes in the region supplying
24 McDonald's beef supplies, and it did seem to me that
25 Mr. Cesca was unaware about a lot of things. (Pause)
26
27 He said on page 52, day 220, that he was not aware that the
28 Cuiaba Sadia plants had ever supplied McDonald's. He said,
29 "I am not aware of that." It is line 14, when you asked
30 him about that. Then this is the point I have noted. I
31 asked him on line 90, "So, really, going back before your
32 time with McDonald's you have not got any information to
33 give the court really." Answer, "No, other than what
34 Roberto Morganti said to us."
35
36 Then on page 54, at the top of the page, he admits that the
37 line about "We couldn't use any ex-rainforest land beef
38 because they would be subject to a tax when they came
39 across the frontier", that that only applied to live
40 cattle. But, as we have heard, live young cattle is a
41 substantial part of the whole beef industry; that live
42 young cattle are brought into the central plains.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but his point was, 'but not across
45 state borders, because the margins of profit are not large
46 and the tax would make all the difference'. That is the
47 effect of what he said. I mean, there is no doubt about
48 where they are slaughtered, is there, it is just where they
49 come from in order to be slaughtered in these places. They
50 are live until they are slaughtered, and he is saying 'For
51 better or worse we have to pay that tax if we brought them
52 over the state border'.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: I would submit that he does not really know what
55 he is talking about, and that seems to me just a line to
56 try and muddy the water. He also said that he had never
57 investigated Bordon's activities. That is day 64, line 62,
58 it was only where they owned the Campo Grande processing
59 plant. We have heard of Sue Branford's evidence about
60 Bordon, the point being that things may be going on behind
