milk producers ask distributors for “a 12% price increase”

“Below a price increase of 12%, it will be extremely difficult for the dairy sector”said Wednesday, March 1 on franceinfo, Damien Lacombe, president of the Sodiaal cooperative, the first French dairy cooperative, a few hours from the end of trade negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers. “This is indeed the final objective that has been setinsists Damien Lacombe. We have requested price increases from distributors that really correspond to the evolution of our costs.

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The chairman of Sodiaal emphasizes having “need this increase to pass it on to farms”. In his cooperative, “the price of milk increased last year by 23%”either “more than the average inflation”. “This can’t last”, warns Damien Lacombe. He points “lots of goals to cover”in particular that of the“attractiveness” or “transitions, decarbonization” : “We have big investments to make and that will be done thanks to the value that we will generate from our products.” He pleads for a “pact with consumers around the right price which allows producers to be remunerated. This is extremely important and extremely urgent in the situation where we are today”.

“Very opposed” to the idea of ​​an anti-inflation basket

Damien Lacombe also says to himself “very opposite” the idea launched by the government of an anti-inflation basket of around fifty products. “It’s going back four years compared to what the Egalim law brought” intended to protect farmers’ income. “It’s a return to the price war if we get into it”, believes Damien Lacombe. According to him, distributors “will inevitably pass on their request to the suppliers that we are today. And we know that we cannot meet this request”.

For the boss of the dairy cooperative, “the subject of food insecurity must be managed differently”. “There are five or six million French people who have difficulty feeding themselves”, recalls Damien Lacombe. The president of Sodiaal claims to have “projects that are under study”as it happens “for example in the United States where there are systems that allow the poorest to feed themselves”. “We must manage to regulate the social by social assistance”adds Damien Lacombe, as “a food voucher or something more elaborate. We have been working on this subject. We will share with the public authorities”. But he insists: “Clearly, the anti-inflation basket would take us back four years and we cannot afford to go back four years.”