Soon food shortages in France?

French consumers will have already noticed it: certain products have tended to become in short supply for several weeks on the shelves of the country’s supermarkets, when they are not simply absent. There has been a disorganization of supply chains since the Covid health crisis, energy crisis , and the war in Ukraine… Rumors and confusion are rife in aall attempts to explain the situation.

In an interview given to the JDD  on October 23, Dominique Schelcher, CEO of Système U, indicates that currently, nearly 12% of products are already missing from the shelves, a situation which also aggravates France’s dependence on imports.

Usual products risk being “missing on the shelves”

In addition, the boss of System U also fears we will see a succession of bankruptcies in the agri-food sector. But, concretely, what should French consumers expect in the near future?

Dominique Schelcher fears that “within a few weeks to a few months, the usual products may be lacking on the shelves”.

On the subject of these shortages, which would therefore no longer be a matter of science fiction, he explains that, “according to Agricultural Cooperation, which represents one third of the brands, many producers will soon be forced to make choices of ranges, because of too high costs: farmers will decide, for example, to abandon raising poultry in favor of growing cereals”.

Clearly, some products that are more expensive to manufacture, such as cheese and cooked meats, could be completely abandoned by producers. Ditto for products with less commercial success.

The energy bill called into question by the CEO of System U

How did we come to the brink of such shortages in a country like France? If, as indicated previously, several causes are currently put forward on both sides, for Dominique Schelcher, the main reason is the surge in energy prices. A soaring energy bill, in his words, puts some smaller and midsized businesses “at the foot of an insurmountable wall”.

If they have not anticipated this energy-bill inflation, these businesses, “because often isolated and without access to reliable information, are forced to renegotiate fuel contracts that become three to four times more expensive”, underlines the CEO of Système U. He indicates that his own company will its energy bill double in 2023.

As for the war in Ukraine, if it does not appear to be the key trigger for these supply difficulties in French mass distribution, it has nevertheless hardly contributed to allowing a return to normal. On the contrary, the conflict that began last February has, according to Dominique Schelcher, “sustainably and profoundly disrupted the agri-food chain”, while the product shortage rate, initially around 2%, has now crossed the 10% mark in France.

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