Prices of industrial food products will not fall “before March”, according to distributors

A drop in food prices on major brand products is difficult to foresee before March 2024 and the end of the next negotiations with manufacturers, the bosses of Intermarché and Système U warned on Wednesday morning. “We hope for March” at the result of the next annual negotiations between manufacturers and distributors a drop in the prices of food products in stores, declared on RTL the boss of the Intermarché group Thierry Cotillard.

"The big meeting is next March, in the meantime we are taking our responsibilities", abounded on Radio Classique the president of System U, Dominique Schelcher, stressing that until then "on the big brands, nothing will move”. The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire summoned the distributors to Bercy on Wednesday with the intention of asking them to prolong and extend their price reduction operations. He will receive the industrialists on Thursday.

These price reduction operations began in mid-March as part of a non-binding commercial operation called the “anti-inflation quarter” and initiated by the government. Food price inflation began to slow in July (12.7% over one year, against 13.7% in June) but remains very high. This reduction in the level of inflation does not, however, correspond to a drop in prices on the shelves, but to a less marked increase.

At Wednesday's meeting, distribution bosses intend to ask Bercy to "change the law (on sector negotiations, editor's note) to allow negotiations up or down depending on" fluctuations prices on the markets, explained Thierry Cotillard. "The difficulty of this subject is that we negotiate once a year for prices which apply throughout the rest of the year", underlined Dominique Schelcher, denouncing a "system which locks us in and behind which industrialists (...) take refuge”.