Bruno Le Maire announces an “anti-inflation quarter” to fight against rising food prices

While inflation continues to rise, the Minister of the Economy met on Monday March 6 with the players in the large distribution sector. An agreement has been reached to combat rising food prices, with the launch of a “anti-inflation quarter”. The distributors have thus undertaken to offer the prices “lowest possible” until June on a selection of products.

The device, financed thanks to the margins of the distributors, will cost them “several hundred million euros” and the government also intends to deploy in the coming months a “food voucher” for the most modest households, specified Mr. Le Maire.

At the end of this “anti-inflation quarter”, “we will reopen trade negotiations [théoriquement annuelles et qui viennent de se terminer] with the big industrialists so that the fall in wholesale prices, which we are seeing on the markets but which has not yet been transmitted to everyday consumer products, can be translated” on everyday products, said the minister.

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The products will be “chosen freely” by each of the distributors, specified the Minister, and may vary from one region to another. They will be identifiable by a tricolor logo “anti-inflation quarter”. Most of the commercial operations will relate to private label products, on which the brands have the most “latitude” to set prices, explained the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard.

Leclerc absent noticed

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Absent from this meeting in Bercy, Michel-Edouard Leclerc did not want to participate, citing “an orchestral side” and political communication around the basket “anti-inflation”a time proposed and then abandoned by the government. “I’m not going to go on the photo to say Leclerc sells for less”launched on CNews the president of the strategic committee of the Leclerc centers.

“I did not wait for a public meeting to be cheaper”continued Mr. Leclerc, who does not want “sacrificing this priced image on the altar of political communication”. However “I’m not slamming the door in the face of Bruno the Mayor”he assured, adding that he would speak to the minister ” just now “ on the phone.

Tensions with mass distribution

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Faced with food inflation, which reached 14.5% over one year in February according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), several brands, such as System U, Carrefour, Monoprix or Intermarché have already announced “anti-inflation” measures, making de facto superfluous the government’s plan for a “anti-inflation basket”. The idea, suggested at the end of 2022 by the Minister Delegate for Trade, Olivia Grégoire, to guarantee low prices on a selection of consumer products, was finally abandoned by the executive, the major brands opposing a single basket imposed by the State.

Relations between the government and large retailers had been strained in recent weeks after the adoption by the National Assembly in January of a text redefining the balance of power between suppliers and distributors. The big brands, including Leclerc, castigated a measure that risked worsening inflation.

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Le Monde with AFP and Reuters

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