Food price inflation: What possible consequences for modest households?[Inflation des prix alimentaires : quelles conséquences possibles pour les ménages modestes ?]

Food prices have been rising sharply for over a year now. The provisional results published by Insee in January 2023 show an increase of of 13.2% since January 2022, more than double the rise in the price index (+6%) and slightly slightly less than energy prices (+16%) [1]. Detailed data published by IRI show that price rises have particularly affected staple foods and "bottom-of-the-range bottom-of-the-cupboard" products, such as oils, rice, sugar or minced steaks [2]. Prices for "first-price" and private-label products are rising more sharply than national brands (+17.8% for the former and +11.6% for the latter the latter [3]), probably due to lower margins, which mean that the increase in more directly on the final price. The causes of these price rises are multiple and well identified. First of all, they are due to shocks to agricultural and food production at international level and to the logistics of distribution chains: war in Ukraine, disruption of logistics chains linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, impacts of meteorological disasters linked to global warming such as the floods in Pakistan. Secondly, growing food demand in certain countries, notably China, is structurally destabilizing agri-food markets, partly as a result of the Chinese government's policy of ensuring food security through stockpiling, without coordination with other countries [4]. What could be the consequences of these brutal price hikes on the choices of French consumers, particularly the most disadvantaged?