The standoff continues between the government and farmers.
To calm tensions, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, announced this Wednesday morning a new text of law to
“strengthen the Egalim system”
, which will arrive by the summer.
Although he assures that this will allow better remuneration for farmers, not everyone is of the same opinion.
This is the case of the president of Lidl, Michel Biero, invited this Wednesday on BFMTV:
“We can do Egalim 4 but as long as we have not dusted off the law to modernize the economy it will be of no use.”
Concretely, this economic modernization law (LME) governs commercial negotiations between distributors and manufacturers and only concerns national brands.
But for the president of Lidl, it
“is a law of opacity which serves the industrial world”
.
To illustrate his remarks, Michel Biero brought two contracts onto the television set: one of 400 pages concluded within the framework of the LME with an industrialist and another of 4 pages for one of his distributor brands, concluded with the the farmer and the industrialist.
The LME
“is an obsolete law, which was perhaps good in the context of 2008 but which is no longer good in 2024”
.
“My proposals are simple: we must reform the LME and set a guaranteed minimum price
,” suggests Michel Biero.
“If we all sit around the table, we can define a time and for example say that in the next three months, we can no longer buy a liter of milk for less than 46 cents, bought today for around 40- 41 cents for the farmer, that’s not enough
,” adds the president of Lidl.
“The farmer doesn't care how much I sell per liter of milk, he just wants to make a living from his work.”
But
“without collective will”
,
“the legislator must intervene”
.
Read alsoPesticides, Egalim law, labor... What to remember from Gabriel Attal's press conference on the agricultural crisis
“Transparency”
Among his other proposals, the hard-discounter representative also proposes
“a minimum selling price for distributors”
, pointing in particular
to “pig at 1.96 euros”
, sold last week in Leclerc stores.
“Legally, you can do it, but as a pork producer you go crazy when you see this price
,” laments Michel Biero.
If he highlights the measures put in place by the government, the president of Lidl is now asking for
"transparency [...] to avoid this fool's game"
.
An observation also shared by manufacturers, including Ilec, which represents very large manufacturers.
“We need more transparency
,” proclaimed this Wednesday morning on BFM Business Richard Panquiault, spokesperson for the organization.
But for the latter, the point of balance with mass distribution is
“difficult to find”
because
“the distributors demand a level of transparency that we cannot give them because they would have access to our accounts”
.
With their private labels, brands could thus adapt their prices according to those of manufacturers.
If each sector puts forward its demands, farmers continue to demand better remuneration for their production.