From the next few days and until June, distributors will offer “the lowest possible price level” on a “high” number of products that they will select, Bruno Le Maire announced on Monday.
A new response to “heaviest inflationary shock since the 1970s”. Faced with food inflation in France, which reached 14.5% over one year in February according to INSEEthe government announced on Monday 6 March the establishment of a “trimestre anti-inflation” in supermarkets with “the lowest possible price level” on a selection of products.
This operation, which will apply to products whose selection will be left to distributors, will come into force in the coming days, said the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, during a press briefing at the outcome of a meeting with distributors. It will therefore remain in effect until June.
The Minister also announced the experimentation of a food check for the French “the most modest”, “launched in the next few months”. Franceinfo answers five questions regarding these new announcements to deal with food inflation.
1 What will this “anti-inflation quarter” consist of?
As of the next few days and until June, distributors will offer “the lowest possible price level” on a number “pupil” of products that they will select, Bruno Le Maire announced on Monday. The effort will be “taken from distributors’ margins”, and will represent “several hundred million euros”, affirmed the minister in Bercy.
“Each distributor will make the efforts he wants on a certain number of products that he will define”, he summarized in the presence of Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate responsible in particular for SMEs and Tradeand representatives of the distribution sector. “I believe in freedom of trade, we are not going to fix prices… We are not fixing prices administratively”, added the minister. “ We will simply ensure that the commitments made by the distributors will be respected.” For this, Bruno Le Maire assured that the services of his ministry, particularly the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention, would carry out checks in supermarkets to ensure compliance with these commitments.
At the end of this quarter, trade negotiations with agribusiness suppliers, which ended on Wednesday, will resume. “We will reopen trade negotiations with major manufacturers so that the drop in wholesale prices, which we are seeing in the markets, but which is not yet transmitted to everyday consumer products, can be translated” on everyday products, assured Bruno Le Maire on Monday. “We are not going to wait until the end of 2023 for the fall in wholesale prices to affect retail products.”
2 What products will be affected?
The products concerned will be chosen by each of the distributors, and may be different from one region to another. They will be identifiable from the next few days thanks to a tricolor logo “trimestre anti-inflation”. Dominique Schelcher, CEO of System U, unveiled the visual identity on Twitter.
The French will soon be able to spot the products of the Anti-Inflation Quarter behind this logo in the stores of the distributors. pic.twitter.com/H4WEymkeq2
— Dominique Schelcher (@schelcher) March 6, 2023
These commercial operations to deal with food price inflation will “mainly on our distributor brands, since it is on these brands that we have the most latitude to (…) block prices for 100 days”, said during the press briefing at Bercy Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour. The brands concerned are, for example, Reflets de France, Marque Repère or the U brands.
3 What have distributors already announced?
From the beginning of February, Système U had communicated around a basket of “150 products at cost price”, launched for “an indefinite period”. Other distributors have followed in recent days. Nearby Sunday newspaper, Alexandre Bompard revealed on Sunday the creation of a basket “essentials and nutrition” in Carrefour stores. This will include 200 products (including 100 called “Daily” and 100 with a Nutri-Score A and B) of the brands Carrefour and Simpl, whose prices will be blocked around 2 euros between March 15 and June 15.
Also on Sunday, Intermarché announced the launch of a campaign on “500 anti-inflation products”of which 30 “fresh products from traditional shelves – meat, fish, fruit or vegetables”. Monoprix, a sign of the Casino group, has at the same time ensured that its system “Monopetitsprix” would remain in effect until the end of June. Some 300 products will thus remain at fixed prices, alongside 87 complementary products at “controlled prices”.
“I did not wait for a public meeting to be cheaper”for his part affirmed on CNews Michel-Edouard Leclerc, Chairman of the strategic committee of the Leclerc centers. The first French distribution network “does not forbid anything”but his boss “prefer for the moment to be cheaper on everything” and avoid “such a restricted cone of communication” Who “gives the impression that we are catching up on the rest”.
4 What regarding the idea of an “anti-inflation basket”?
These announcements, both from Bercy and distributors, follow a previous government proposal to launch a “anti-inflation basket”. “One of the possibilities is to have a basket of basic necessities of around twenty products, which the large retailers would undertake to sell almost at cost price”, had declared at the beginning of the year the Ministry of Commerce to AFP.
Olivia Grégoire had however admitted, at the beginning of February on Europe 1, that“Between the idea and the action, it’s always complicated”. She had then mentioned regarding fifty products for this basket, “at low price and not at cost price”. “It’s complicated because the big distributors don’t necessarily agree on the basket”had conceded for his part the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, on RMC.
On franceinfo Saturday, two days before the announcements on the “trimestre anti-inflation”the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, had confirmed that the idea of the anti-inflation basket “[n’adviendrait] not”.
5 What is the food check?
In parallel with this operation in supermarkets, intended for all consumers, “there will be a food check for the most modest”, Bruno Le Maire continued on Monday. “An experiment will be launched by the Ministers of Agriculture Marc Fesneau and the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe in the very next few months”he said.
The food voucher was a proposal of the Citizen’s Climate Convention in 2020, in order to buy “sustainable products”. The idea had become a commitment of Emmanuel Macron, finally postponed, because considered too complex to implement by the government. “It’s very complicated to set up, I won’t hide it from you”warned Bruno Le Maire in 2021 on BFM TV. The project resurfaced during the presidential campaign, with a new commitment from president-candidate Macron.
The experiment announced by Bruno Le Maire on Monday “will be done on a territorial basis, probably the department, so as to be closer to consumers and closer to agricultural producers as well”according to the minister.
