“We are contract people.” Invited this Wednesday at BFM Business, the president of the National Association of Food Industries (Ania), Jean-Philippe André, said that he was “ready” to reopen trade negotiations with distributors as soon as commodity prices fall. raw first “be tested.”
“In the same way that we asked last year that our cost increases be taken into account in our negotiations (…), when there are reductions that are going to be verified, when the time comes, we are ready for the renegotiation,” he said. he said in response to statements by System U boss Dominique Schelcher, who noted on Wednesday morning the “extreme resistance of industrialists” to reopen trade talks while “raw materials are falling.”
“In all contracts there are renegotiation clauses. And the principle of reversibility (…) is something that suits me very well,” added Jean-Philippe André, considering that “we cannot accommodate a 9% drop (in sales ) in volume at the end of the first quarter, because the first to suffer are our companies”.
The industrial representative, however, insisted that the renegotiations will only take place when “there are changes in the costs of our raw materials and our packaging.” He understands: it is still too early.
Ania, in favor of continuous negotiations only “when the circumstances are exceptional”
Jean-Philippe André also said he was in favor of Dominique Schelcher’s proposal to end the “3-month trade negotiation period” in order to “be able to negotiate all the time” but only “when the circumstances are exceptional or extraordinary (. .. .) If this year we have to meet two or three times to take note of the news, we will do it”, said the president of Ania.
But “in normal times, we are opposed to having open negotiations all the time for reasons of control and regulation of our commercial relations. We have what is called this March 1 deadline, which is something we have.”
Finally, he estimates that food inflation could begin to stabilize and then decline “in the second half of the year.” But “we will never go back to 2019 prices,” she warned.
Source: BFM TV
