2023-11-16 08:23:34
The extension of the right to use meal vouchers at the supermarket, a relief for everyone? No, not everyone. Michelin-starred chef Thierry Marx, president of the main employers’ union in the hotel and catering industry, Umih, asks to be received “as soon as possible” by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, while Bercy is considering perpetuating the possibility of purchasing food products at the supermarket with meal vouchers. He contests the merits of the measure, and especially the economic consequences it might have on restaurateurs.
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“With its regarding-face on the extension of the use of meal vouchers to food products, the Government is sending a very bad signal to our profession,” he laments in a press release sent to AFP on Thursday November 16.
An exception introduced in 2022
“In restaurant voucher, there is ‘restaurant’, continues the famous chef, long known to the general public thanks to the show Top Chef on M6. This title must remain a lunch aid for employees who do not have a restaurant. company. It must not become a shopping cart voucher. requests to be received as soon as possible by the Prime Minister to express our incomprehension, our dissatisfaction and our wish for a rapid return to the situation preceding the 2022 law “, he adds.
The law introduced in 2022 the possibility of purchasing non-directly consumable food products (flour, pasta, rice, eggs, fish, meat, etc.) in supermarkets with meal vouchers, an exemption which was to end on December 31 2023. But faced with the outcry caused by the end of the system, Bercy announced its wish to extend it to 2024, or even to make it permanent.
A shortfall of 200 million euros according to Thierry Marx
“In 2023, there will be a shortfall of 200 million euros for our restaurateurs,” estimates the chef, recalling “that in 2023, mass distribution saw its meal voucher market share increase by more than 6 %” when “that of restaurants decreased by 3%”.
“I can clearly hear the voices expressing themselves regarding the usefulness of this title, in times of inflation, for everyday shopping. Inflation concerns all French people. The rise in prices also impacts our restaurateurs “, indicates Thierry Marx, calling on the government to “design a food voucher or a food check to fight inflation and help the most disadvantaged”.
(With AFP)
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