Cédric Chasseur, with Emmanuel Duteil 4:29 p.m., August 24, 2021

Some fruits and vegetables are becoming rarer this summer on supermarket shelves.

Consequence: their prices increase, with the fear of a snowball effect on other processed products.

Guest of Europe 1 this Tuesday, Dominique Schelcher, boss of System U, wants to be reassuring and invite consumers not to panic.

INTERVIEW

You just have to go shopping in any store, in the Paris region or in the provinces, to see the obvious.

Buying fruits and vegetables is more expensive this year.

Peaches, nectarines and apricots, for example, have seen their prices increase by 20%.

The fault of a lower production because of the bad weather conditions of spring.

And that may not go on improving, as other rays could be impacted in a domino effect.

Even if, on Europe 1, the boss of System U Dominique Schelcher calls "not to panic".

The extra cents are piling up

The rise in the prices of fruit and vegetables will, in fact, have an irreparable impact on those of processed products. Like jam, each jar of which is likely to take a few cents more in the weeks to come. The same goes for pasta, victims of the decline in wheat production. Professionals expect a 10% increase in the price of the package. On the receipt, at the cash desk, these cumulative cents are transformed into euros, which disappear from household purses.

Aware "of the purchasing power difficulties of many French people", Dominique Schelcher promises that his teams "are doing everything to cushion these increases".

How? 'Or' What ?

By cutting back on the margins, for example.

“We offer our customers five fruits and vegetables at cost price each week,” he explains.

Thus, the producer is paid "more expensive" by the distributor, and the customer, for his part, "continues to see a product at the right price".

One way for the company to "take its share".

"Things will progress slowly"

But is this position sustainable over time? "Things will progress slowly," admits the CEO of System U, who recalls that since the beginning of the year, "prices in large distributions have not increased, or even have fallen slightly". Discussions "are underway" between suppliers and distributors, and we will have to wait for the results of these meetings to know the extent of the increase. "But once again, solutions will be found so as not to have a major impact on the consumer," slips Dominique Schelcher. "This is our first objective".