Carrefour seeks to ease Brazil tensions after CEO's meat snub
Carrefour rows back after CEO criticises Mercosur meat
Carrefour has huge business in top meat producer Brazil
Beef suppliers cut deliveries to Carrefour Brasil
Carrefour Brasil flags shortage of meat cuts in stores
Updates paragraph 1, adds Atacadao statement in paragraphs 2 and 9, Brazil agriculture ministry in paragraph 6, adds details
By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, Nov 26 (Reuters) -Carrefour CARR.PA apologised on Tuesday after its CEO Alexandre Bompard's criticism of South American meat last week angered Brazilian industry and caused suppliers to cut beef deliveries to the food retailer's Brazil subsidiary.
Atacadao CRFB3.SA, the Brazil retail chain majority-owned by Carrefour, said beef deliveries to Grupo Carrefour Brasil stores "have not occurred as scheduled" since last Thursday, causing shortages of selected cuts in stores.
Carrefour was forced to row back after Bompard said last week that the trade deal being discussed between the European Union and the Mercosur regional trade bloc presented the "risk of meat production spilling over into the French market (and) failing to meet its requirements and standards".
His remarks in a letter to leaders of France's farm lobbies, posted on social media, were blasted by Brazilian agribusiness groups as "protectionist".
In its statement on Tuesday, Carrefour said it regretted that its pledge to keep South American meat off its shelves in France was "perceived as a questioning of our partnership with Brazilian agriculture or as criticism of it".
"We never set French agriculture against Brazilian agriculture, as our two beloved countries share a deep love for the land, its cultivation and quality food," Carrefour added.
Brazil's agriculture ministry also said it had received a letter from Bompard apologising for his remarks about the country's meat.
Carrefour said it sources meat sold in France almost exclusively from France and meat sold in Brazil exclusively from Brazil, adding it would continue to do so.
Bompard's remarks came amid protests by French farmers against a potential European Union free trade agreement with the bloc formed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Grupo Carrefour Brasil is working "intensively" with suppliers and expects beef supply return to normal "in the short term", Atacadao said in a statement, adding that there has been no significant impact on sales to date.
Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Additional reporting and writing by Gabriel Araujo and Helen Reid, Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Mark Potter and Louise Heavens
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