This is a call to order for large food retailers after the reporting of several abuses. The government once again pointed the finger Thursday at several brands suspected of abusing “logistical penalties”. Those they inflict on their agro-industrial suppliers when they do not deliver their products on time.
The government statement is signed by the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau and Ministers Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure and Trade, in particular Olivia Grégoire, They underline, in support of their request for a “moratorium on logistics penalties”, that the inflationary context of the costs of energy, transport or raw materials generates “unprecedented tensions on agrifood companies”, whatever their size.
” Without faith or law “
At the beginning of September, the powerful agricultural union FNSEA had demanded the opening of an investigation by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) on logistical penalties, denouncing an attitude “without faith or law of certain distributors when they apply these sanctions. The Ministry of Agriculture then estimated that some distributors were diverting the use of these penalties “to restore their financial health (…) on the backs of their suppliers”.
The authorities indicate that “several administrative injunction procedures under financial penalties have been initiated since February” to ensure that practices comply with the law and have asked the DGCCRF to strengthen their “investigation procedures” on the subject.
Tense negotiations
Negotiations between distributors and manufacturers, which take place each year to determine the purchase price of a large part of the products subsequently sold in supermarkets, were reopened after the start of the war in Ukraine to take inflation into account. production and operating costs. They drag on now, each side passing the buck: manufacturers accuse distributors of not taking into account the increase in production costs in their purchase price, distributors accuse manufacturers of not sufficiently justifying the increases in asking prices. The balance is difficult to find, with consumers increasingly attentive to their checkout.