A few hours after the conclusion of the commercial negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers, the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, denounced on Wednesday those who “try to circumvent the law” without paying “the fair share” of farmers. “Some [distributeurs, NDLR] I try to say: ‘I only pay 80% of the farmers’ and that is not normal”, lamented the president of the majority agricultural union to the microphone of Radio Classique.
The discussions that end with the supermarkets, called by Emmanuel Macron to “participate in the effort”, have been stormy in an inflationary context and herald new price rises. For their part, supermarkets complain about the lack of transparency and the exaggerated demands for increases. “Several distributors question the increase in costs for industrialists and farmers” which reached, according to the president of the FNSEA, 18% per year in 2022.
“We return to the real price”
“I understand that it is difficult for everyone, including consumers, but we must dare to say that we are at war, it will last (…) energy will continue to be expensive,” he said. According to her, “everyone has accustomed the French to eating cheaper than in other places, and there we return to the real price that allows French agriculture to stay afloat.”
The negotiations are tense “for a simple reason”, the spokesman for the Lactalis group Christophe Piednoël explained to RMC: “what we are asking for is higher than in previous years because we want to pass on the increases in our prices. The price of milk”. “It is a difficult year economically for the agricultural world and the agro-industrial world,” he added.
“It is a compromise, we pay 25% more than the price of milk to breeders, so it must be reflected”, according to Christophe Piednoël, who specified asking for an increase between 9% and 15% depending on the products. “On average we can think that the French will have to bear a price increase of around 10%,” he estimated. According to him, “it is the price to pay for having a healthy and sustainable diet.”
Source: BFM TV
