Supermarket chain Colruyt partly halts orders from JDE Peet’s over price dispute

By Alban Kacher

(Reuters) – Colruyt has halted some of its orders from JDE Peet’s after the Dutch coffee company asked for further price hikes for its products due to the global rise in coffee prices, the Belgian supermarket chain said on Wednesday.

The decision comes in connection with Colruyt’s yearly negotiation round with its suppliers. While the retailer went along with JDE’s price hike request last summer, the recent negotiations have proven more difficult, Colruyt said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

“When we look at the price increase Jacobs Douwe Egberts is asking today, we do not think it is justifiable,” it said, adding that the talks were still underway and it was confident they would eventually reach an agreement.

The temporary interruption of orders for now concerns a limited number of products, namely Douwe Egberts dessert ground, dessert beans, Senseo cappuccino and Jacquemotte moka, Colruyt said.

JDE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Global prices for raw coffee soared to record highs last week and are up some 80% this year as adverse weather in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s top coffee growers, has hit the crop outlook, with consumers internationally likely to feel the pinch by as early as the end of March.

JDE Peet’s has said it would be raising prices for roast and ground, whole beans, soluble, capsules and cappuccino in Brazil, according two traders who saw confidential documents sent to the company’s clients.

(Reporting by Alban Kacher in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)