The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced, this Thursday, August 31, that the price of 5,000 references in stores would not increase or decrease and that the negotiations between manufacturers and supermarkets for 2024, which normally begin at the end of year, would be anticipated.
The government’s objective is to obtain “price reductions from January 2024”, declared the Minister of the Economy on France 2 after meetings with the actors of the French food chain on Wednesday and Thursday. It ensured a “mandatory and immediate repercussion” of the fall in wholesale prices on shelf prices, which will have to be subject to checks by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention ( DGCCRF), a department of Bercy.
The giants Unilever, Nestlé and Pepsi singled out
The Minister also attacked industrialists who, in his view, “could do much more” against soaring prices, citing the giants Unilever, Nestlé and Pepsi. On the other hand, he praised industrialists who had “played the game” by announcing price reductions, such as the pasta specialist Barilla or the oil giant Avril, a company whose president Arnaud Rousseau has just taken over as head of the majority agricultural union FNSEA. .
The government, notably through the voice of the Minister Delegate for Trade Olivia Grégoire, announced in April “a visible drop in prices on the shelves” of supermarkets at the start of the school year, but the addition remains painful for consumers.
The government hoped that prices could fall following renegotiations between distributors and agri-food manufacturers, who negotiate each year from December until March 1 the conditions of sale for a large part of the products sold throughout the rest of the year. in large areas. During the last episode concluded last March, the average price paid by supermarkets to manufacturers rose by 9%. But the price of a number of raw materials has since fallen and the government has called on the various parties to get back around the negotiating table to review the prices.
According to the distributors, very few of their industrial suppliers have played the game of these renegotiations. The main drivers of inflation in recent months, food prices jumped 11.1% year on year in August, a slower rise than in July (12.7%) but still significant, especially since prices had already started to appreciate in August 2021.