The prices of food products will increase on average by 2% to 3% in France following commercial negotiations between manufacturers and large retailers, but they will fall for a quarter of them, Bruno Le Maire announced this Monday.
“A quarter of food prices will fall”said the Minister of the Economy on France 5, promising a reduction “right away” while the commercial negotiations concluded on January 31. “It’s not going to be 10%, it’s going to be 1, it could be 2, it could be 3%”he added, citing pasta, sugar, coffee, grains and oils. “Afterwards, overall there will be an increase on all products which will be contained between 2% and 3%.”
Egalim Law
The government had brought forward the date of these annual trade negotiations by a few weeks in order to achieve price reductions on basic necessities more quickly after two years of high inflation. The practices attributed to food manufacturers and mass retailers have also been at the heart of the recent anger of French farmers, who accuse them of monopolizing the margins allowed by their own production.
Of the 1,000 contracts signed between the 75 largest manufacturers in the sector and five distributors during the negotiations which have just concluded, 124 do not respect the rules of the Egalim laws, the objective of which is to better remunerate farmers, said Bruno Le Mayor on France 5. The minister declared that he had sent injunctions to the manufacturers or distributors concerned so that they comply with these laws within 15 days, failing which they would incur a fine of 5 million euros. Bruno Le Maire promised that the names of the sanctioned companies, if applicable, would be made public.