If the wallets of the French suffer because of inflation, certain products will cost (a little) less to consumers. With a 13.6% increase in food prices over one year in June, according to INSEE, distributors and manufacturers are trying to act to save the purchasing power of the French. And it was time, in particular with a decline in the prices of raw materials and production costs, which had already begun several weeks ago.
In detail, poultry-related products will experience a price drop of around 3%, “because chicken feed is much cheaper than a year ago, so we pass it on in the price of purchase”, specified this Monday morning on BFMTV Thierry Cotillard, president of the group Les Mousquetaires. Pasta “will also be down significantly by 3 to 10%” depending on the brands (Panzani or Barilla). Carrefour also reports a drop “of nearly 30 cents on the package of Panzani pasta (spaghetti) weighing one kilo”, applied for three weeks. Durum wheat, the raw material for pasta, thus fell from 460 euros per tonne on January 1, 2022, to 360 euros per tonne on Monday.
According to forecasts by Thierry Cotillard, oil prices will also decrease, by 15% for rapeseed and 3% for sunflower. Contacted, the Les Mousquetaires group explains to Le Figaro that these reductions “are passed on in the consumer selling prices, dated July 8”. The prices of paper-based products will also gradually decline, such as Le Trèfle toilet paper sold at Carrefour. The group has thus recorded for a few weeks a “drop of 50 cents”, or 10% of the price of the product. “Animal feed” will also be affected, said the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, in early June.
In addition to raw materials, “production costs” – electricity and packaging – have also been falling for several weeks. It is for this reason that Bruno Le Maire called on the 75 manufacturers last May to renegotiate their prices. Those who played along agreed to several commitments, including early indexation to price cuts and “2-10% back-of-the-shelf discounts.” Coca-Cola, for example, offers 10% reductions until autumn, only on its sugar-free range. If it is a (small) effort for the brands, the promotions only concern part of the references and are limited in time.
The efforts of some are commendable, however, while others refuse to renegotiate their prices, despite their high margins. This is particularly the case of “Univeler”, points out this Monday Thierry Cotillard. The group manages well-known consumer brands: Amora, Ben
For Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution, these relations will lead to “a political problem around the perception of prices”. Indeed, on an average basket, “there are as many products up as down”. “The price reductions will be few in terms of the products concerned,” explains the expert. Moreover, these drops will also be minimal “compared to the price levels concerned”.
On January 1, 2022, a one-liter bottle of Fruit d’Or oil was for example offered at 3 euros on the shelves, compared to 4.16 euros on June 9 and 4.07 euros on July 9. “There is indeed a drop of a few cents but we will not find – for the time being – the prices before”, notes Olivier Dauvers. This example is repeated with the price of four Danone chocolate yoghurts set at 1.33 euros in January 2022, 1.66 euros in April 2023 and 1.64 euros last June. “All consumers will hear that there are price cuts but they will see them nowhere, warns the specialist, at the start of the school year, there is a risk of social tensions, or even mistrust vis-à-vis vis-à-vis distributors, industrialists and the government”.
