The floor prices proposed by Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, during his tormented visit to the Agricultural Show, would not necessarily be a good idea, according to Thierry Cotillard, the boss of the Mousquetaires/Intermarché.
“We were a little surprised by the announcement, the notion of a floor price had not been discussed with the other ministers, nor Gabriel Attal, nor the Minister of Agriculture,” declared Thierry Cotillard this Tuesday morning on France Inter.
And added: “I think that this will be a brake on European competitiveness where we are also very happy to export, but I will let the agricultural managers express themselves on the subject”.
“We all have a share of responsibility” in this agricultural crisis, believes Thierry Cotillard, of the Les Mousquetaires group.
“We have made progress with the Egalim law. We have never opposed the defense of purchasing power with the income of farmers.”
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According to him, “before getting all the European players to agree on this subject, some time, even a few years, will pass and farmers can no longer wait,” he explains.
“We need concrete, immediate decisions,” he pleads, saying he is “favorable to an Egalim law which goes further on directionality and transparency”.
Concerning the highly criticized European purchasing centers, Thierry Cotillard affirms that the group buys everything in France but "if we have confirmation that it is indeed legal (and the reading we have is that it is legal ), we will have to go there otherwise there will be too much of a price gap with our competitors.”
According to him, these European centers “are useful for weighing on inflation”.
However, he says he is ready to propose “a charter” with the five leaders of mass distribution to “exclude from the European center all files which would have a significant component in agricultural products”.
“There are 10% of files that must leave European centers to protect farmers’ income,” according to him.
The words of Marc Fesneau “not up to the level”
In another register, the boss of Intermarché returned to the exit of Marc Fresneau, the Minister of Agriculture accusing large-scale distribution of a “lack of patriotism”.
“Large distribution is French companies.
So either they are French, or they are stateless multinationals, he said last Thursday, during a visit to a farm in Finistère.
But, finally, they have responsibilities to take before us.
Everyone must take their part.
If they consider that they are not French, it is a lack of patriotism.
I regret that.”
Comments that the boss of the Mousquetaires/Intermarché deemed “very inappropriate” and “not up to the level”, the comments of the Minister of Agriculture.
“I would have preferred it to bring industrialists, farmers and distributors to the table,” he said, adding that his private label had “made the choice fifty years ago to have factories in France” and that “eggs, butter, poultry, beef… everything we sell in raw materials is 100% French”.