Brazil judge's ruling keeps soy moratorium in place

By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A Brazilian judge on Wednesday left in place a moratorium on trading in soy grown in recently deforested parts of the Amazon, according to a decision seen by Reuters, rejecting a request by a farmer group to reverse an injunction related to the ban.

The soy moratorium had been suspended by antitrust body CADE last month on suspicion of breaching competition law. A judge later granted an injunction on that decision, which was challenged by farmer group Aprosoja Mato Grosso.

The decision showed Judge Liviane Vasconcelos rejected the farmer group's "request for reconsideration... since it was filed by a third party who is not a party to the proceedings."

Aprosoja Mato Grosso did not have an immediate comment.

Brazil's soy moratorium, is a two-decade-old private pact created to protect the Amazon rainforest by barring soybean traders from buying from farmers who cleared land there after July 2008.

Some 30 soy companies are signatories of the moratorium, including ADM ADM.N, Bunge BG.N, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Co. and China's Cofeco.

Challenges against the soy moratorium, which Brazilian farmers call an unfair agreement that keeps some out of the market, had escalated in the last few months.

After the CADE decision to probe the companies associated with it, Brazil's Environment Ministry and federal prosecutors, who back and monitor the moratorium, have mounted a public defense of the program, setting the stage for a struggle over its fate and raising risks for global soy traders.