Commercial negotiations between large retailers and their agro-industrial suppliers on shelf prices end this Wednesday evening in an atmosphere still tense by the angry movement of farmers, worried about their income.
The agricultural crisis pushes the State to be particularly attentive to these discussions between manufacturers and traders of consumer products well known to the French.
During his general policy speech to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Gabriel Attal mentioned the General Directorate of Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF), whose inspectors ensure that the contracts that must be signed before Wednesday midnight, large retailers and their agro-industrial suppliers respect the legal framework.
“As of last week, 100 additional DGCCRF inspectors began their checks on the ground, which will be twice as numerous as before
,” he declared in particular, referring to
“an unprecedented wave of checks”
.
Solidaires CCRF & SCL, the first union within this service dependent on the Ministry of the Economy, put the scale of these controls into perspective on Monday by recalling that the DGCCRF lost 1000 agents (from 3656 agents in 2007 to 2624 at the end of 2021, according to him) in 15 years and that a little over a hundred agents had to control
“several tens of thousands of operators”
, including more than 17,000 agro-industrialists.
Every year, commercial negotiations take place between agri-food companies (from small charcuterie producers to giants Unilever, Nestlé or Coca-Cola) and their supermarket clients (E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Intermarché or Système U).
They must agree on the conditions of sale for a large part of the products sold in supermarkets the rest of the year.
The purchase price by supermarkets from manufacturers, the place allocated to products on the shelves and a possible promotional calendar are thus decided... Supermarkets strive to obtain the best prices to be well positioned in the face of competition and preserve their margins.
As for manufacturers, they are reluctant to lower the selling price too much and insist that they have suffered significant inflation in their production costs in recent years.
Also read: Anger of farmers: wanting low food prices, a dangerous game
Advanced negotiations this year
Negotiations usually end on March 1, but were brought forward this year by the government which hoped to see reductions in wholesale prices of certain foodstuffs, for example wheat or certain oils, reflected more quickly on the shelves of supermarkets.
Professionals, however, warned that we should not expect massive or widespread price drops, while the basket of French people in supermarkets costs them on average 20% more than two years ago.
It seems very unlikely that the rate reductions will be of a magnitude comparable to these increases.
In addition, it may be difficult to welcome price reductions in the midst of anger among agricultural professionals.
Some organizations, starting with the FNSEA, have criticized the government for focusing too much on combating soaring prices on supermarket shelves, rather than on preserving farmers' income.
The latter is, however, theoretically better protected by several laws adopted in recent years, provided that the authorities are able to detect, control and fine possible breaches of this extensive legislation.
Any average estimates of price increases (or decreases) will not, however, allow us to presume the level of inflation on the shelves of supermarkets, since it is the latter who set the price charged to consumers, more or less cutting back on their margins.