Bercy is pushing its pawns to accelerate the fall in food inflation, which remains high this fall. This Wednesday morning, the Minister for the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Delegate Minister, in particular for Commerce, Olivia Grégoire, met with representatives of large retailers to discuss this issue. The problem of the calendar of the commercial negotiations has returned to be on the table and the Government is studying various ways to solve it, according to the specialized magazine LSA.
Traditionally organized between December 1 and March 1, the Ministry of the Economy wants to exceptionally anticipate them this year by ending them before December 31, 2023 to transfer the price reductions as quickly as possible. “We ask to be able to really renegotiate and as quickly as possible” to transfer the fall in production costs of many food products to supermarket shelves, explained the general delegate of the large distribution employers’ association (FCD), Jacques Creyssel. at the end of the meeting.
Several commercial negotiations a year.
Bercy also seems willing to align itself with a request that the heads of large retailers have been making regularly for several months: flexibility in trade negotiations. While the latter are made each year for a very specific period, a parliamentary mission could soon be launched to allow rates to be revised several times a year. “The difficulty with this issue is that we negotiate once a year the prices that will be applied for the rest of the year,” the president of System U, Dominique Schelcher, stressed this morning on Radio Classique, denouncing a “system that confines us and behind where industrialists take refuge (…)”.
During the last episode of trade negotiations concluded last March, the average price paid by supermarkets to manufacturers increased by 9%. But since then the prices of some raw materials have fallen and the Government has asked the different parties to come back to the negotiating table. But “out of 75 multinationals, only a dozen had responded to Bruno Le Maire’s call” to lower prices, Lidl France executive director of purchasing and marketing Michel Biero said in a message on Wednesday. He considered that the meeting with Bercy “was very positive and announced concrete measures.”
Expansion of “anti-inflationary” baskets
Olivia Grégoire had launched it on Monday on the set of BFM Business, on the sidelines of the French Entrepreneurs Meeting (REF). “Out of 20,000 references, distributors have lowered the prices of around 1,000 products, said the Delegate Minister of Commerce. […] We are going to ask manufacturers to increase the number of references affected by these price cuts”. According to LSA, supermarkets should soon double the number of references in their “anti-inflation” baskets, the price of which would be maintained until the end of the year.
Bercy could also accede to the request formulated yesterday by the general director of Carrefour, Alexandre Bombard, also the new president of the FDC, in favor of a “moratorium” on the application of the Descrozaille law. Let us remember that the latter regulates the promotions of care and hygiene products and must come into force in March 2024 and is criticized by the distribution that considers it an inflationary law.
Lastly, the Consumer Council could initiate an investigation into the phenomenon of “shrinkflation”, which consists of reducing quantities without changing prices to hide inflation. The “name and shame” threat, recently launched by Bruno Le Maire, could be applied against two large foreign groups that could see their brand names cited refusing to lower their prices. On Thursday it will be the turn of the industrialists who will be received by the boss of Bercy and Olivia Grégoire.
Source: BFM TV
