Kroger CEO blames credit card fees and fuel costs for price increases

The case, which is being heard in Portland, Oregon, is expected to be decided in late September.

McMullen was testifying on Wednesday when his company lawyer asked him about the reason for the increased food prices.

In response, McMullen blamed rising operating and supplier costs for the price increases, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

However, Kroger will not raise prices if the merger with Albertsons goes ahead, he said.

“We believe that value becomes more and more important over time and you cannot offer your items above market price,” McMullen said in court on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

McMullen's comments come just a week after an FTC lawyer questioned a top Kroger executive about an internal email he sent about Kroger's milk and egg prices.

“For milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation,” Andy Groff, Kroger’s senior director of pricing, wrote to his bosses in March, Bloomberg reported.

When asked about the email, Groff testified that Kroger's goal was to “pass our inflation on to consumers,” according to Bloomberg.

“This selected email covers a specific time period and does not reflect Kroger's decades-long business model of lowering prices for customers by reducing margins,” a Kroger spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider's Natalie Musumeci last week.

The growing concern about high food prices has attracted the attention of both presidential candidates who are trying to win votes with their economic policies.

Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a proposal for the first nationwide ban on price gouging in the food and grocery sectors.

The proposal drew mixed reactions from some business leaders and economists, who said the plan represented a case of government overreach.

Former President Donald Trump said in a press conference last month that he could lower the cost of living by cutting energy prices.

“So if I win, I'm going to bring prices down immediately, starting day one. We're going to end Kamala's war on American energy, and we're going to drill, baby, drill. We're going to drill, baby, drill. That's going to bring the prices down on everything, because energy has driven them up,” Trump said.

However, some experts believe that Trump is unlikely to be able to keep this promise.

“It's mostly just noise, because the president actually has no direct control,” Michael Webber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about Trump's proposal.

Representatives for Kroger did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment outside of regular business hours.