2023-08-11 13:30:00
If the inflation figures have tended to fall for three months, the results are not being felt on the shelves of supermarkets, deplores Testachats, which has seized the Competition Authority Illustration – Belga By Laurence Piret Journalist at the General editorial office Published on 05/07/2023 at 04:00
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Each month, Testachats compares the prices of 3,000 products sold in 7 supermarkets in the country. Distributor brand products but also national and international brands, whose prices are still far too high!
Thus, headline inflation is falling slightly for the third month in a row: the overall rate is 17% increase between June 2022 and June 2023, whereas the overall increase was 20% last March. “It’s a positive signal,” said Julie Frère, spokesperson for Testachats. Which reminds all the same that these 17% are added to the inflation that we had already recorded, of around 9.5% between June 2021 and June 2022, and which therefore adds up to that which we know. Today.
Julie Frère, spokesperson for Testachats.
But Testachats is also surprised. “While energy prices have fallen sharply for months, and the prices of certain raw materials have fallen sharply, it is clear that these price cuts are not benefiting Belgian consumers”.
“Something is off”
Testachats indeed only notes a very slight drop in the shelves, on only a few products in the basket. “International cereal prices have been falling since October 2022. However, of the 32 kinds of flour in the basket, barely 10 have become cheaper, 5 have kept the same price and 17 have seen their price increase”, deplores Testachats.
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Ditto in the dairy department, whose prices have also fallen in recent months. “Only one semi-skimmed milk saw its price drop out of the 41 products studied, while 36 products became more expensive”.
In the oil department, it is also the cata. “International vegetable oil prices have been falling since March 2022, but no frying oil has seen its price drop. On the contrary, out of the 17 products in our basket, one product remained at the same price and 16 increased”.
A situation that particularly concerns the association, which has just challenged the Competition Authority by inviting it to look into the problem. “In a healthy market, prices should tend to fall. However, they stagnate or increase further. It’s that something is wrong somewhere, ”says Julie Frère. “Obviously, we are well aware that in the final price paid by consumers, there are not only raw materials, but there are transport, storage, wages, energy. But we should still see a faster decline in supermarkets. We have to worry regarding it, and see if some do not take advantage of it to inflate their margins”.
Testachats claims that, as in France, negotiations around prices between suppliers and large retailers can take place several times a year. “With us, these negotiations generally take place once a year. However, it is not normal for consumers to have to wait for the start of the school year in September, or January 2024, to take advantage of price reductions. We also see that national and international brand products fall more easily than private label products, even though it is precisely on these products that retailers have the most leeway to set prices”.
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Another wish of Testachats: the creation of an anti-inflation basket, as in France. “A device that is useful now but also in the future, in the event of new sharp price increases”.
Testachats also wants the role of the Price Observatory, a service of the FPS Economy, to be strengthened, so that it examines price increases and their explanations, and that we can sanction manufacturers or distributors who thus inflated their margins by artificially raising prices. “We also welcomed the initiative of Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne, who said he wanted to impose price reductions on manufacturers and distributors, as in France, even if we found the initiative late. But since then, we haven’t seen anything. We need progress and that these words are now followed by deeds”.
A meeting is to be held in mid-July between players in the retail sector, producers and manufacturers.
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