A study commissioned by The Left political group in the European Parliament, published on Tuesday 19 December, shows that the rise in food prices is the result of unbridled speculation and that the big agri-food companies have benefited greatly from this crisis.
The study was written by Sophie van Huellen, a senior lecturer in development economics at the University of Manchester and Tomaso Ferrando, a professor at the law faculty of the University of Antwerp.
It shows that rising food prices are not the result of natural market forces, but of intense speculation leading to ‘greedflation’.
Major companies, including Nestlé and Danone, have made considerable profits during the crisis. Nestlé, for example, paid out a total of €20.1 billion to its shareholders in 2022. The study highlights the role of these companies in exploiting market conditions to the detriment of consumers.
According to the authors of the study, the food system benefits big business and hedge funds while harming consumers and farmers.
The co-President of The Left group in the European Parliament, German MEP Martin Schirdewan, notes that “high prices particularly affect people on low incomes, who have to spend a large proportion of their income on food”.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/a6j (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)