They have until midnight to agree on the price of canned vegetables, grated cheese and ground beef: Negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers end on Tuesday, following weeks of tensions exacerbated by the inflation.
“It will be played out once once more in the last hours,” said AFP Jean-Philippe André, president of Ania, the main professional organization in the food industry.
“The account will not be there,” anticipates Mr. André.
Given the increase in the cost of agricultural raw materials, packaging and energy, the manufacturers he represents wanted to sell their products at around 6% more than last year.
In the end, the negotiations should lead to a “significant price increase of around 3%”, indicates the general of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD), Jacques Creyssel.
“Compared to zero last year, this is a very noticeable change,” adds the spokesperson for the brands.
Commercial negotiations between distribution and its suppliers determine the price of the products put on the shelves during the year. In the end, they also determine part of the income of farmers, allies of circumstance of the industrialists to pass on to consumers the inflation which they undergo – the price of animal feed has particularly increased.
At the Salon de l’agriculture, the Vendée breeder Mathieu Rousseau deplores expenses “at the highest” and a selling price of animals “at the lowest”.
“We are weighed down by a context to which we can do nothing at all, it’s super frustrating”, adds the young producer of Label Rouge pigs.
For weeks, farmers in tractors have regularly blocked access to supermarkets or taken over town centers to put pressure on supermarkets. Eggs were thrown at the headquarters of Carrefour.
– “We will never let go” –
Even if the annual negotiations also concern toilet paper or shampoo, the attention is focused on the prices of food products.
The balance is delicate: allow farmers to live from their work, manufacturers to continue to produce and invest, without straining household budgets.
However, even before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the acceleration of inflation had put purchasing power at the forefront of the concerns of the French in the presidential campaign.
The executive – which has erected the improvement of farmers’ income as the “mother of battles” – wanted to show its firmness: sanctions once morest Intermarché under previous rounds of negotiations, controls of state services and warning of Emmanuel Macron in the home stretch.
“The pressure will continue to be put on processors and distributors, and until the last minute we will not let go,” said the president during his visit to the Agricultural Show on Saturday.
During the five-year period, the government endeavored to rebalance the balance of power between the actors of the food chain via the Egalim laws then Egalim 2, recently promulgated.
At Ania, Jean-Philippe André criticizes Egalim 2 for having “diced up the problem” by sanctifying the share going to farmers by taking into account their production costs, leaving aside those of manufacturers (packaging, energy, transport).
In the signs, it is indicated that the inflation of agricultural raw materials has been “taken into account” in accordance with Egalim 2. For the rest, “it is normal that in difficult situations, manufacturers make an effort like everyone else” , says Jacques Creyssel.
Especially since “the major manufacturers had an extremely favorable year in 2021 with very high margins”, he believes. By emphasizing that the products must remain affordable: “We can clearly see in our stores how difficult the situation for the French is and that we have a common interest in ensuring that sales volumes are preserved.”