Negotiations between supermarket brands and some of their agri-business suppliers ended on Monday evening with general clashes and without proposals for large and sweeping price cuts.
The government passed legislation in November to bring forward by a few weeks the end of the negotiation period between distributors and their suppliers, with hopes of a drop in certain wholesale prices, oil or even energy, to have a quicker impact on energy shelves.
Exceptionally, therefore, companies must agree more quickly on sales terms for 2024 for suppliers with a turnover of less than 350 million euros by Monday evening and no later than January 31 for suppliers. ).
“The negotiations went well, the French producers were rather right,” declared Michel-Edouard Leclerc, E.Leclerc, media representative of the leader in mass distribution on TF1. “I come to you with a rather positive outlook on these negotiations.”
“Prices will come down and we will reduce food inflation to 2 or 3% per year,” added Michel-Edouard Leclerc, after an average price increase of more than 20% in two years.
“I think we will have a third of food prices that will fall” at the end of the negotiations, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire estimated on Monday, asked by Voix du Nord readers.
For their part, producers have difficulty digesting sometimes having to sell at lower costs than last year, arguing that part of their production costs are still rising.
In a press release, the Association of Processed Food Products Companies (EDEPAL) said it had noticed “unreasonable price reduction requests disconnected from cost changes borne by companies”.
“No room for maneuver”
According to the organization, SMEs and ETIs (medium-sized enterprises) in the food sector requested price increases that were “moderate (less than 4.5% for the most part) and strictly linked to variations in agricultural and industrial costs of raw materials, energy as well as Increase in wages, services (banks, insurance, etc.), interest rates and storage costs.
Adepale is also “concerned” about the “future of the Egalim law”, which was meant to secure the income of farmers, “because the large-scale distribution during these negotiations shows little sensitivity to the protection of agricultural raw materials”.
The head of the National Federation of Dairy Industries (Fnil), which protects the interests of processors (excluding cooperatives), told AFP that it was “unacceptable and illegal” for large-scale retail buyers to demand reductions “at all costs” for dairy SMEs. .
The organization’s CEO, François-Xavier Huard, cited Carrefour and Intermarche as underperformers.
The latter defends itself against any irregularity. “We respect the law,” the brand told AFP, adding that it is concerned to “guarantee the price paid for milk production” while “protecting the purchasing power of our customers”.
“Our discussions concern the cost of transformation”, which is carried out by companies such as Lactalis, “in no case on the price paid for the product”, adds Intermarche, “willing to discuss quickly with François-Xavier Huard.”
Commercial negotiations take place every year to determine the terms of sale (purchase price, shelf space, promotional calendar, etc.) for the majority of products sold in supermarkets and usually end on March 1st.
Published on January 15 at 9:17 pm, AFP
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