"Industrialists do not play the game, they refuse to return to the negotiating table to negotiate prices down," Bruno Le Maire said Thursday night on TMC, announcing that he would receive them on Wednesday.

"I appeal to their sense of responsibility," hammered the Minister of the Economy believing that "they do not have to take advantage of this crisis".

Bruno Le Maire called for a reopening of commercial negotiations between manufacturers and distributors, "at a time when wholesale prices are falling".

At a meeting earlier in the day with the heavyweights of the large distribution, the latter "collectively asked the government to take concrete measures to push the industrialists to the negotiating table," Dominique Schelcher, the CEO of Système U, told AFP.

"If ever the agri-food industry refuses to enter into this negotiation, which obviously I can not imagine, we will use all the instruments at our disposal, including the fiscal instrument, to recover margins that would be undue margins made on the backs of consumers," warned Le Maire in the morning.

A vision of the situation rejected by the president of the National Association of Food Industries (Ania): "No, there are no profiteers," offended on RTL Thursday morning Jean-Philippe André, adding that "inflation is bad for (industrialists)" also.

"We have automatic upward or downward revision clauses in all contracts if there are variations in commodities," he said.

The new president of the majority agricultural union FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, regretted Thursday at a press conference a form of "one-upmanship" fueled by the Minister of Economy and distributors.

According to him, this risks relaunching a "price war" low, which would penalize the income of farmers and the sustainability of farms.

Extended anti-inflation quarter

In addition to the requests made to industrialists, Mr. The Mayor also wanted distributors to extend beyond June 15 the "anti-inflation quarter" which he described as "success".

This operation has allowed according to the minister "millions of (French) to have access to food products whose prices have fallen by 13% in recent weeks".

"The distributors present (at the meeting) have generally agreed to the extension of anti-inflation operations" and "many will go in this direction," assured AFP Jacques Creyssel, general delegate of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD).

The CEO of Système U announced that he was extending the anti-inflation quarter "until the end of the year".

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire at the Elysee Palace on May 11, 2023 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

The boss of Intermarché Thierry Cotillard had said before the meeting that he would condition its extension to the reopening of commercial negotiations, while revealing on France Info that the operation would continue whatever happens on certain products.

Inflation peak in June

The cost of certain raw materials has been falling in recent months, without this necessarily translating into lower prices in supermarkets.

"We see that the market is turning around, I have very precise figures: we have butter which is at -60%, we have sea freight which is at -80% so we would like to be able to pass (this decrease)" on the prices on the shelves, explained Mr. Cotillard.

The latest trade negotiations ended on 1 March and resulted in an average increase of around 10% in the prices paid by supermarkets to their industrial suppliers.

Still according to Mr. Cotillard, food inflation is likely to experience "a peak at 17%" over a year at the end of June: "Either we are able to obtain from manufacturers reductions in their tariffs (...) or nothing happens and inflation remains at 17%," warned the boss of Intermarché.

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© 2023 AFP