This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

France’s agriculture minister has sought to reassure households that food shopping bills would not jump dramatically after a rise in minimum food prices aimed at increasing farmers’ incomes came into effect.

The measure introduced on Friday had been postponed by the government in December as France reeled from nationwide unrest and sometimes violent gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests over high living costs and squeezed household budgets.

Didier Guillaume said prices would increase on only 5% of products sold in supermarkets, including Nutella, Coca-Cola and granola – items retailers often sell at a discount to attract consumers.

The “field-to-fork” bill was a campaign promise of Emmanuel Macron to win support among farmers, an important voter constituency in France, who have long complained of being hit by low margins and ending up the victims of retail price wars.

“Households will only end up paying more if their trolley is full of Nutella and Coca-Cola. The price of loss-leader goods will increase, while the price of meat, fish, cheese, vegetables will not,” Guillaume told CNews.

The legislation includes a 10% increase in the price floor for food products and curbs promotional offers so that retailers cannot discount products by more than 34% of their value.

Guillaume said the average household shopping bill would increase by just 50 cents a month.

Supermarket retailers such as Carrefour, Casino and Leclerc typically made a margin of 30-40% on farmers’ products, the minister said, adding: “I ask them to stop doing that.”

Michel-Édouard Leclerc, the chief executive of privately owned Leclerc, France’s largest food retailer by market share, has branded the measures a “scam” and said farmers would not see higher prices.