French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has reached a deal with domestic food retailers and manufacturers to freeze or cut prices for approximately 5,000 everyday products, which represents a quarter of all products available on French supermarket shelves on average.
Le Maire, who had spent two days of talks with executives and representatives from 75 big retailers and producers, shared the claims during a lunchtime television interview with France 2 on 31 August.
Le Maire had previously announced a deal with the top retailers and manufacturers to cut prices on about 1,500 products. Le Maire, however, named food giants Unilever, Nestlé, and PepsiCo as being among food companies who weren’t fully cooperating with previous anti-inflation measures. Meanwhile, he highlighted companies like Avril Group or Barilla, who were able to reflect a drop in raw material prices for vegetable oil and pasta products, respectively.
Le Maire heralded yesterday’s deal as a significant step forward in fighting inflation. He said that all stakeholders agreed to bring forward annual price negotiations - initially planned for next year - to September, with a view to having price cuts from January 2024.
Le Maire added that retailers who don’t rapidly pass on price cuts by suppliers to their customers could face sanctions, and that price freezes and cuts will be monitored by the government’s DGCCRF (Directorate General for Consumer Affairs, Competition and Fraud Prevention).
