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By Benoit Van Overstraeten and Leigh Thomas
PARIS (Reuters) -French shoppers should pay less for their food from next month, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, after he secured a pledge from 75 food companies including Unilever to cut prices on hundreds of products.
The companies, which together make 80% of what the French eat, could face financial sanctions if they don't follow through, Le Maire said.
The government is furious that supermarket prices have hit record levels in recent months even though the costs of many raw materials used by food producers have been declining.
Improved harvest prospects have helped push the United Nations' index of world food commodity prices to a two-year low.
France's finance minister has previously threatened to claw back what he described as "undue" profits from food companies with special taxes if they did not pass on their own lower costs to consumers already struggling with high energy bills.
"As soon as July, prices of certain products will go down," Le Maire told BFM TV on Friday, after meeting food industry representatives a day earlier.
"There will be checks and there will be sanctions for those who don't abide by the rules."
Le Maire said pasta, poultry and vegetable oil were among products on which prices will be cut. The costs of beef, pork and milk would not be affected by the move, he said.
While the pace of food price rises has been slowing across the euro zone, it is the main factor keeping inflation high. The European Central Bank, which is expected to raise interest rates again next week even though growth is very weak, has said high corporate profit margins are also an inflation risk.
Euro zone inflation fell more than expected in May but is still more than three times the ECB's 2% target.
High food prices are a concern for European governments from Britain to Italy, but France has been among the most aggressive in pushing price cuts. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has imposed mandatory price cuts on some basic food items.
Supermarket chains across Europe say shoppers are voting with their feet and opting for cheaper private label alternatives to branded food products.
France's Carrefour has an "anti-inflation button" on its website that shows customers cheaper alternatives to products, often pointing them to own-brand groceries.
According to a survey by Euromonitor, 22% of Europeans said they plan to increase their purchase of private label products in 2023, up 5 percentage points from last year.