Swedish giant Ikea’s main supplier in Brazil accused of chemical pollution, illegal deforestation

Investigations by Disclose, a French journalism non-proft, reveals that the Ikea’s main partner in Brazil has ‘all the makings of an environmental criminal’. Artemobili, the company that makes its furniture for the U.S. and European markets, was sued in 2018 and again in 2022 for multiple environmental crimes. The Brazilian company confidently threatened to take Disclose to court should its business links with Ikea, its main export customer, be mentioned publicly. This is the story that the Swedish firm and its Brazilian supplier would rather forget.

Tracing the Swedish giant’s supply chain is proving to be more complicated than following its instructions for assembling a piece of furniture. This is also true of its famous bookcase, Billy – one is sold every five seconds worldwide. The brand’s iconic product is manufactured in four countries including Slovakia, on their Malacky site. Using open source customs and maritime data, Disclose managed to identify 40 containers on their way to the factory, packed with pine and wood fibre planks, which transited through the Port of Hamburg on 30 September 2023. They had come from the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil.