The cry of alarm is clear. “For three years our sector has been experiencing the deepest crisis in its history, given the rise in prices we can no longer continue. With every meal served in a canteen, companies in our industry are losing money. (…) We ask (…) at least a 9% increase with respect to the prices charged on January 1, 2022. And if this is not possible, we ask to be able to break the contracts”, worry the actors of the collective restoration (canteens schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.) in a forum broadcast on Monday.
On BFMTV this Tuesday, Marie-Cécile Rollin, director of Restau’co (interprofessional network of collective catering) explains the situation: “we are warning about the difficulty today of transferring the increases that impact us due to the increase in production prices. For For each meal produced, we are 20 cents short of meeting the commitments we have had with these producers.”
The risk, according to this professional, is the fall in the quality of the meals served, especially to children, if this increase is not accepted by the communities or financed by the State.
“The consequence is that we will gradually degrade purchases”
“The consequence is that without additional help from the communities or the State, (the sector) we will gradually downgrade our purchases. We are in the process of stopping the commitments we had with organic producers, red labels, local producers and those who trust in the collectives. catering”, fears the manager.
For several years, collective catering has been moving towards “quality products and it is this commitment that is in danger if we do not have the necessary aid to finance the real cost of food today.” says Marie-Cécile Rollin.
On the side of the communities that finally pay the bill to the collective restoration providers (and have the option of passing on the increase to the parents of the students or not), this blow of pressure goes wrong.
Still on BFMTV, Gilles Pérole, deputy mayor of Mousans-Sartoux and co-chair of the “school catering” working group at the Association of Mayors of France and says he is “surprised by the singular method, we cannot like that they negotiate through of the press, especially since each municipality has its own contract with a company. We cannot put the same rate of increase with 10,000 contracts in question”.
“This 9%, we don’t know where it comes from”
The director also recalls that the communities are also affected by inflation while “our income is frozen.”
Therefore, the confrontation is committed to this threat to quality. A threat that the chosen one rejects.
“In theory, these companies that serve meals to 40% of the communities that have called them have specifications in the contract they signed. So they should not lower the quality. The issue of quality is fundamental. We can think of more direct purchases to get better prices,” says Gilles Pérole.
Source: BFM TV
