Here we go again! The new bill regarding “the modernisation of the French economy”, proposed recently by the government, has really got the food industry climbing the walls.

To be perfectly honest, one point in the text was bound to raise some anger among the sector. Under the proposal, retailers - to be more precise, the ‘fat cats’ of French retail, such as Carrefour, Auchan et al - would have the opportunity to negotiate prices with their suppliers throughout the year. The fact is that at the moment, such negotiations take place only once a year, and that covers most of the products found on the supermarket shelves, from toothpaste to chocolate biscuits. For the French minister of trade, Christine Lagarde, the aim of the bill is to bring “more players onto the [retail] field, and to allow retailers still without a presence in the French panorama to get one without delay”.

The topic is far from a new one. For some months now, relations have been pretty tense between the food industry and retailers. The government, which is chasing purchasing power in all the wrong places, is presenting this bill as something that will swiftly facilitate better prices for clients.

However, a bill passed last March allowing retailers to reduce their prices by 15 to 20 per cent as back-office margins (money paid by suppliers for the services offered - or more accurately, imposed - by retailers), which are now illegal, may be deducted from the final price. “Why another bill?” claimed the, for once, united French food industry (even the almighty agriculture union FNSEA joined the movement).

Looking more closely, we start to understand that all this concerns the big food companies, those selling worldwide standardised products. But are fruits and vegetables part of the doomed equation? It seems not, as perishable products are excluded from the process. Does this infer a special status for fresh produce?

Another part of the bill should raise further concern among traditional retailers: no authorisation would be necessary to build an outlet of a size up to 1,000sqm. The government made it clear that this is to favour the hard discounters. Fruit and veg wholesalers and greengrocers in France are struggling to develop a consistent policy of proximity retail - but is it worthwhile doing so if every remote village in France may soon have its Lidl or ED, the latter already famous for offering a more than decent fruit and vegetable display?