Michel-Edouard Leclerc calls for a parliamentary commission of inquiry after “suspicious” price increases

“Many of the increases requested are increases in anticipation, even speculation. The word is out. Michel-Edouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the centers of the same name, estimated at the microphone of BFMTV and RMC that “half of the price increases” demanded by the agro-food industry “are not transparent and are suspect”. “I would like the deputies (…) to open a commission of inquiry into the origins of inflation, into what is happening on the price front from transport to consumers”, he called. .

Faced with soaring production costs linked to the recovery of the post-Covid-19 economy as well as the war in Ukraine, the government called on distributors and agri-food manufacturers in mid-March to get back around the table to review the contracts just signed on March 1 following commercial negotiations. These contracts fix the price of some of the products that will be sold during the year in supermarkets and the first round of negotiations resulted in an average increase of 3% in the prices charged by manufacturers to distributors.

The profits of transport multinationals singled out

However, today believes Michel-Edouard Leclerc, these renegotiations have “given the premium to the higher bid”. “When a supplier arrives with his invoices, he is asked for transparency. I understand that small businesses (are strongly affected by) the price of glass, aluminum,” he said. “For the little ones than us, we have discernment and we (accept) their increases” in price.

On the other hand, he stigmatized “the large international companies” which arrived “with transport bills increasing by 15, 20, 30%, in particular the prices of containers which have increased by 30%”. This, while “the transport companies are coming out of profits by the billions last year”, he said. Another example is the “manufacturers of chocolate or cocoa products who invoke Ukraine for a 15% tariff increase on chocolate bars or confectionery…”, he added.

The enthusiastic left

“Excellent suggestion”, reacted the PS deputy and first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure in a tweet, ironically: “(useful precision for his good reputation, he is not Nupes)”. The president of the PS group in the National Assembly Boris Vallaud deemed it “important that a business leader say so”. “These price increases are not sustainable, we need transparency and action. This request for a parliamentary commission of inquiry must be looked at. Has the government seized the competition authorities? “, he also asked in a tweet.

For MP LFI Clémentine Autain, “the increase in inflation is directly correlated to the huge sums given to large groups without any compensation”. “Great idea that this commission of inquiry, we need to know,” she added.