«On promotions, we can go today up to 34% (off). But what we see in most cases is that large retailers are only at 21%, so they have margins, so they have the ability to ensure that they carry part of the effort themselves,» he said on France Inter.
Faced with inflation, «part of the effort is carried by the State. The measures on purchasing power, including on food, it is the State and therefore the tax of the French who pays them. So everyone has to take their share. But that can’t be at the cost of going back over decades when it was always the producer, the farmer, who couldn’t find his margin».
Promotions were capped at 34% by the Food or «Egalim» law passed in 2018, which aimed to stem the race for low prices and support farmers, in a context of low inflation at the time.
At the beginning of the week, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced a mission from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) to ensure compliance with this law, which obliges distributors to sell products with a minimum margin. of 10% supposed to benefit the producers.
If it turns out that the provisions of this law do not benefit producers, «it will be necessary to think about the possibility of modifying them», indicated Monday Mr. Le Maire, who suggests for example promotions at 50%, instead of the 34% authorized, with «slashed prices for all those who need it».
“Not the right answer”, had estimated Christiane Lambert, Christiane Lambert, president of the majority agricultural union FNSEA, which defends the creation of a food check and also demands more transparency on the distributor and industrial side.
«Does this law work well? There are a number of cases where the mechanism that would allow for promotion is not implemented,» said Marc Fesneau on Saturday.
The president of the strategic committee of the E. Leclerc centers, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, had asked at the beginning of April for the partial suspension of this rule of 10% in order to reduce its selling prices.