2023-05-17 13:08:11
When will we (finally) be able to see prices drop in supermarkets? The food manufacturers are summoned to Bercy on Wednesday by the government, which urges them to renegotiate with the brands in order to bring down the very high prices on the shelves as quickly as possible. If, at the start of the war in Ukraine, certain industrialists “quickly passed on the increase (grain or energy prices), they were slower to pass on the recent drop in certain prices, Emmanuel Macron lamented on TF 1 on Monday. The Head of State thus called on certain industrialists to “reopen trade negotiations” with large retailers.
“The objective is that we absorb this (food) inflation by the fall,” added the President of the Republic, inflation measured at nearly 15% over one year in April. Each year, the prices of products sold to supermarkets are set after a period of negotiation. That for 2023, completed on March 1, resulted in an average increase of around 10% in the prices paid by brands to manufacturers.
According to the National Association of Food Industries (Ania), the biggest manufacturers have agreed to reopen negotiations with supermarkets by the end of May.
An increase in production costs
Manufacturers have been calling for price increases for months to take into account the increase in their production costs (energy, transport, raw materials, packaging, etc.). But since then, the costs of certain agricultural raw materials or energy have tended to stabilize or even fall.
The government has therefore been hammering for a few weeks that manufacturers must lower the selling price of their yogurts, cheeses or spreads in supermarkets. In the event of refusal, “we will use all the instruments at our disposal, including the tax instrument, to recover margins which would be undue margins made on the backs of consumers”, warned the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire. last week.
Faced with three members of the government – the Minister for the Economy, the Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure, and the Minister Delegate in particular for Trade, Olivia Grégoire – they are the representatives of Ania, the main organization of industrialists in agrifood and Ilec, which carries the voice of manufacturers of major national brands (Coca-Cola, Danone, L’Oréal or Nestlé), and are expected in Bercy this Wednesday.
At first, they had let it be known that the manufacturers were ready to discuss again on a case-by-case basis, but that there could not be “renegotiations on all products”, assured Jean-Philippe André, the president of the ‘Ania. On Tuesday, the Brasseurs de France union pointed out that production costs (glass, packaging) “remain at very high levels”, and that energy prices have been “multiplied by four” for certain SMEs.
Delicatessen companies have also expressed their fears that such renegotiations will put them “further at risk”, while the price of pork cuts has recorded a further increase of “15 to 20% since the start of the year “.
#Inflation #negotiations #reopen #agrifood #giants #supermarkets