The inflationary peak seems to have passed this time. Good news of course, but that doesn’t mean prices will go down, they’ll just rise more slowly. In this context, food prices that have skyrocketed in recent months are still the subject of debate and negotiations between manufacturers and distributors, much requested by Bruno Le Maire and supermarkets, are long overdue. For Michel-Edouard Leclerc, interviewed this Wednesday in France Info, only one solution can change the situation: change the law.
“Bruno, we have to go”
At the negotiating table there are still not many people, according to Michel-Edouard Leclerc who is once again attacking the ill will of the industrial giants. “They offer us small discounts, promotions but they don’t want to renegotiate the agreements,” explains the head of the E.Leclerc centers.
After months of struggle between the interested parties, and while the Minister of the Economy has gone from request to threat, the 75 largest agri-food manufacturers are resisting the fall in prices, says Michel-Edouard Leclerc.
Taxation, “name and shame”… Bruno Le Maire has tried to use various illegal weapons to convince manufacturers in recent months. But for the head of Leclerc’s centers “it’s a show […] the law normally prohibits renegotiating between two periods” and the industrialists cling to it. So, what to do? Bruno Le Maire must change the law, says the leader.
The big boss also returned to the “battle” that opposes him to the “king of the margin” Pernod Ricard. According to him, Pernod Ricard offers prohibitive sales prices that the E.Leclerc centers refuse to pay, so the beverage company has decided to stop delivering them. There are hardly any Ricards left in the E.Leclerc supermarkets.
Any expected price drop soon?
Given this status quo, few foods will be sold cheaper next week, launches Michel-Edouard Leclerc. “There are even a dozen of the 75 suppliers of Ania (National Association of Agro-food Industries), who only offer us increases,” he says.
The story is not the same on Ania’s side. Of the 75 large manufacturers that Bruno Le Maire wants to bring back to the negotiating table, 45 are from the food industry, and 80% of these “will activate levers so that in the next three months the prices on the shelves can go down” , explained the president of Ania, Jean-Philippe André, on Franceinfo last week.
However, he warned that most of these companies cannot lower their prices because the prices of raw materials and wholesalers are still very high, excluding cereals, poultry and coffee. There are no lasting price cuts on the horizon, just promotions to come.
The sky is still not clear between distributors and manufacturers as consumers experience food inflation that is still very high: it was 14% in May and 15% in April.
Source: BFM TV
