Top food companies in France including Unilever have pledged to cut prices on hundreds of products. The move comes after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire threatened firms with financial sanctions if they fail to do so. 

The French government is furious that the prices consumers pay in supermarkets have hit record levels in recent months – despite a fall in the prices industry pays for many raw materials. 

Le Maire has previously threatened to claw back what he described as "undue" profits from food companies with special taxes if they did not pass on falling raw materials prices to consumers already struggling with high energy bills. 

"As soon as July, prices of certain products will go down," Le Maire told BFM TV last Friday after meeting representatives of the food industry the previous day.

Seventy-five of France's top food manufacturers have pledged to lower prices on a range of products including oil, vegetables and pasta in the wake of this government pressure.

For months, French retailers said food items were priced to keep up with energy costs, wages and commodity prices that soared post-pandemic and due to the conflict in Ukraine. Record high food price inflation surged to about 16 percent in March. In May, it cooled marginally to 14 percent.

The plan to force retailers to make their prices reflect cheaper raw material costs in supermarket aisles cannot come soon enough. 

Wandile Sihlobo, an agriculture economist at Stellenbosch University, told CGTN: 

"For much of the second half of the year, it's only then that we'll see food prices moderating. There's been a lag in the prices between the retailer and farm prices."

Consumers are expected to see price cuts of between 2 and 10 percent from July.

According to Sihlobo:"If you look at anything in the cereal baskets, related to grain, we think that that's going to decline in the coming months. Secondly, vegetable oil, fruits and vegetables are also going to decline."

He added:"We're not as positive about meat products, because across the world today we have the avian influenza. It's the same thing in egg prices. The same is true for sugar prices because in South America today, the sugar fields are not in good shape."

Protecting consumers from exorbitant costs is a priority for many European governments. 

In the UK, supermarket executives were questioned in parliament, while Hungary has imposed mandatory price caps on some essential items as Europe's record-high food prices threaten to spoil consumers' appetites.

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