PepsiCo products are being recalled from some Carrefour grocery stores in Europe due to high prices

Paris (AFP) – The global supermarket chain Carrefour will stop selling PepsiCo products in its stores in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy for over a period of time. Increases in prices of popular goods Like Lay's potato chips, Quaker Oats, Lipton tea and its namesake soda.

The French grocery chain said it pulled PepsiCo products from shelves in France on Thursday and added small signs in stores saying “We no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases.”

This comes in light of a new French law aimed at combating the high cost of living, with supermarkets facing millions in fines if they do not reach an agreement with suppliers on prices by the end of the month.

The ban will also extend to Belgium, Spain and Italy, but Carrefour, which has 12,225 stores in more than 30 countries, did not say when it would take effect in those three countries.

PepsiCo products were still on shelves on Friday in Rome and Barcelona. Carrefour Italy's press office said that the information will be disseminated to customers in their stores in Italy in the coming days.

PepsiCo said in a statement that it “has been in discussions with Carrefour for several months and we will continue to engage in good faith to try to ensure the availability of our products.”

The company behind Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and Rice-A-Roni has And raising prices by double for seven consecutive quarters, most recently an 11% rise in the July-September period.

Its profits have risen, although rising prices have led to a decline in sales as people turn to cheaper stores. PepsiCo also said it is shrinking package sizes to meet consumer demand for convenience and portion control.

“I think we're seeing the consumer now being more selective,” Hugh Johnston, PepsiCo's chief financial officer, told investors in October.

The New York-based company said price increases should decline and be largely in line with inflation, which has fallen dramatically around the world since the collapse of supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and then Russia's war in Ukraine sent prices soaring.

However, the twenty European Union countries that use the euro currency have seen Consumer prices rose to 2.9% in December compared to the previous year, rebounding after seven consecutive monthly declines, according to figures released on Friday.

Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices fell from 17.5% in the 20-nation euro zone in March, but remained 6.9% higher in November than a year earlier.

French President Emmanuel Macron's government has resisted rising costs of living for families, passing a law in November to implement “emergency measures” to combat rising prices.

The law postponed annual negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers on setting prices and more to January 31 from March 1. Fines have been increased to 5 million euros ($5.46 million) for grocery companies that fail to adhere to the new price-setting deadline.

In the United States, many grocery retailers, including Walmart, have expressed dissatisfaction with consumer product companies' moves to continue raising prices even as overall inflation declines. Areas that saw particular problems were packaged food and household goods, although price increases have eased in the past few months.

“We all need to get these prices down,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told analysts in May.

stew leonard jr, The president and CEO of Stew Leonard's, a supermarket chain with stores in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, told The Associated Press in July that he had warned major consumer products companies that he would not accept any further price increases because he believed customers had. I've reached a turning point. But Leonard noted on Friday that price increases had eased, with the exception of meat.

“It's hard to justify price increases when overall costs are falling,” Leonard added.

For its part, PepsiCo indicated High costs of grains and cooking oil Due to their high prices. The costs of those food commodities Oil prices rose in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but fell significantly on global markets last year Record levels in 2022.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on Friday The food price index fell by 13.7% in 2023 than the previous year, but its measures Sugar and rice prices rose at that time. Families in supermarkets still feel this general relief.

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Associated Press correspondent Frances D'Emilio in Rome and AP Retail Writer Anne DiNocencio in New York contributed to this report.