Saturday morning, the Minister of Agriculture called on distributors to “take their share” in the face of inflation.
Faced with soaring food prices, the various actors must make efforts, believes the government. Asked about France Inter, Saturday morning, the Minister of Agriculture called on large retailers to “take part“, to limit inflation, in particular by increasing promotions allowing consumers to save precious euros.
This Monday, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had put forward the possibility of increasing the ceiling which frames the promotions of food products from 34% to 50%. A means of allowing buyers to benefit fromcut prices“, according to him. Faced with an outcry from the producers, who were worried about seeing their margin reduced to a trickle, Bercy backtracked, abandoning this track the next day.
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The basic question on the sharing of value in the chain nevertheless remains topical, pleaded Marc Fesneau: “there are a number of cases where the mechanism that would allow for promotion is not implemented. […] What we see in most cases is that mass distribution is only at 21% (of maximum promotion, editor’s note)“. Players therefore still have some leeway to increase temporary reductions, respecting the 34% cap set by the Egalim laws, and limit price increases, he added.
Several players have recently wondered about the price increases affecting food products. In June, according to INSEE, these reached 5.7% over one year, including 6.2% for fresh products alone. A level considered too high by some: the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee, which is currently increasing its hearings as part of the work of the Egalim law monitoring group, has promised to draw up an initial assessment of inflation in the food on July 20. In the National Assembly, the RN group demanded the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into “the real causes of inflation“, an idea also put forward by the CRCE group in the Senate.
For its part, Bercy will launch controls “sector by sector» on food prices, for «see if there are unacceptable marginsand punish them, announced Bruno Le Maire. The DGCCRF has also launched a “single point of contact» allowing companies to report «anomaliesin price formation and identify abusive behavior.
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