Anxiety and high expectations. It is as well that you could summarize the state of mind of the farmers as the NGO prior to the arrival of the draft law “agricultural and food” before the national Assembly, Tuesday 22 may. Already, discussions have been lively during the passage of the text in the committee, where more than 1,800 amendments have been reviewed.
The draft law ” for a balance of commercial relations in the agri-food sector “, is the result of the general state of the power supply (EGA). A unique initiative which has met for nearly six months the whole of the supply chain actors, farmers, industrialists, distributors, but also NGOS and elected representatives.
Put an end to the price war
The mid-term review in November 2017, the president of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, promised a legislative text. He was quoting one of its main goals : to put an end to the price war between major retailers, destructive of value for all and a source of prices not remunerative to the farmers. The first mission of the bill, and his ambition is claimed, is to better distribute the value in the food chain and to ensure a decent income for farmers.
The government has decided initially on two key measures. First, the appreciation of the threshold of resale at a loss of 10 %, which is, for the large-scale distribution, to add the cost of logistics to the purchase price of the product for food. Then, the supervision of the promotions with framing policy, setting the limits to 34% in value and 25 % by volume. This would result in prohibiting the offers of ” one free for one bought.” Measures that should be taken by prescription in the six months following the publication of the law, for a trial period of two years.
The appreciation of the threshold of resale at a loss has given rise to a lifting of shields of Leclerc. The distributor says that it would be a source of inflation…