Bruno Le Maire threatens to publish the “list of food manufacturers who have refused to lower prices”

Go faster to curb inflation. The Minister of Economy asked, Monday, June 5, the food industry to accelerate negotiations to lower prices. Because they “not going fast enough”estimated Bruno Le Maire on France 5. “Before the end of June, I will publish the list of all the agro-industrialists who have played the game and the list of the agro-industrialists who have refused to return to the negotiating table and who ‘did not want to lower retail prices while wholesale prices are falling’explained the tenant of Bercy.

Moreover, “we will use the tax tool to search the margins of the large manufacturers, which are high and which are recovering, the prices that they did not want to give to consumers during the spring trade negotiations”he warned.

“I will bring together the agro-food manufacturers and the representatives of the distributors in the coming days”announced the Minister, specifying that if negotiations did not open before June 15, they would not have “no effect on prices in September and October”. The rise in consumer prices rose to 5.1% in May over one year, but that of food products amounted to 14.1%.

“Some manufacturers, some large industrial multinationals play the clock”was indignant the tenant of Bercy, recalling that the 75 largest agri-food manufacturers have undertaken to reopen trade negotiations with distributors. “To date, there are two or three who have done it”according to Bruno Le Maire, citing distributors.

In addition, Bruno Le Maire greeted the distributors “who have all agreed to extend until the end of 2023 the operation of the anti-inflation quarter which was to end on June 15”. Since March 15 and for an initial period of three months, most distributors had undertaken to sell a selection of products at the “lowest possible price”, a formula leaving them great freedom of maneuver.