“French Agri-Food Industry Agrees to Reopen Price Negotiations with Retailers”

2023-05-17 11:13:35

They have been under pressure from the government for several weeks to lower the prices of food products on the shelves. The 75 biggest companies in the agri-food industry have agreed to reopen price negotiations with large retailers earlier than expected, by the end of the month, announced Wednesday May 17 the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Mayor, as well as Ania, the main representative body of the sector.

These announcements follow the meeting held Wednesday morning with the food industry in Bercy, to which they had convened by the government, urging them to return to sit at the negotiating table.

“We are committed before the end of May that “the top 75”, the 75 largest companies in France in consumer products, will return to the negotiating table”declared at the end of the latter the president of Ania, Jean-Philippe André, excluding de facto SMEs.

This will allow “to accelerate the fall in prices in supermarkets”, ” that’s excellent newswelcomed the Mayor, noting that this was “of a first”.

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Among the 75 large companies mentioned, only those who obtained more than 10% increase during the last negotiations will however be forced to return to the table, the others being able to decide as they see fit.

Food inflation of nearly 15% over one year

If, at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, certain industrialists “quickly passed on the increase [des prix des céréales ou de l’énergie]they passed on the decline less quickly” of certain courses, had notably deplored the President of the Republic on Monday during his interview with TF1, calling on them to “reopen negotiations” trade with large retailers.

“The objective is to absorb this inflation [alimentaire] by fall”he added, while the latter reached nearly 15% over one year in April.

Each year, the prices of products sold to supermarkets are set following a period of negotiation. That for 2023, completed on 1is March, led to an average increase of around 10% in the prices paid by the brands to manufacturers.

Read also: See how the price of a shopping cart increases with inflation

The latter have been calling for price increases for months to take into account the increase in their production costs (energy, transport, raw materials, packaging, etc.). But since then, the costs of certain agricultural raw materials or energy have tended to stabilize or even fall.

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The government has therefore been hammering for a few weeks that manufacturers must lower the selling price of their yogurts, cheeses or spreads in supermarkets. In case of refusal, “we will use all the instruments at our disposal, including the tax instrument, to recover margins that would be undue margins made on the backs of consumers”warned Bruno Le Maire last week.

Le Monde with AFP and Archyde.com

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