Large-scale distribution wants to “extend Egalim’s obligations” to catering and wholesalers

The main bosses of large-scale distribution called for extending Egalim's obligations “to catering players, as well as industrial wholesalers”, Friday in a joint letter to the FNSEA. The crisis in the agricultural world “forces us” but mass distribution “cannot do everything”, write in this letter Michel-Edouard Leclerc (E.Leclerc), Alexandre Bompard (Carrefour), Thierry Cotillard (Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché), Dominique Schelcher (Système U), Philippe Brochard (Auchan), Jean-Charles Naouri (Casino, Monoprix) and Ludovic Chatelais (Cora).

Between them, they represent more than 88% of the French food distribution market, according to reference data from panelist Kantar. The government plans to present “by the summer” a new text of law to “strengthen the Egalim system” which should allow better remuneration for farmers within the framework of negotiations between distributors and agro-industrial suppliers. These bosses, often in the media, ask that the question of agricultural income not be addressed “without understanding other outlets”. Their sector “represents less than half of the outlets for French agricultural operations”. For them, it is “high time to extend Egalim’s obligations to those involved in out-of-home catering (restaurants and collective catering, editor’s note), as well as to industrial wholesalers!”

The day before, Thierry Cotillard had regretted to the AFP that local authorities were exempting themselves from certain provisions of the Egalim laws. They provided “that communities must source 20% of organic or local products for collective catering, we are very far from it,” he observed. Large-scale distribution also demands that manufacturers be made “obligation, under penalty of sanctions, to conduct their negotiations” with farmers before those with distributors, and that the price paid to farmers be known in this negotiation.

Previous versions of the Egalim laws pursued this objective with generally unsatisfactory results. The sector still suggests “working on a charter of good practices” to prevent the use of purchasing and service centers based in Europe from being detrimental to farmers' income. “In other sectors, aeronautics, chemicals, Euro-power plants exist” and are “incredible tools” against “the price increases of multinationals” like Coca-Cola or Nestlé, explained Thierry Cotillard the day before, proposing to exclude from these negotiations “products with a strong agricultural component”.